My sister and her son are visiting and we have had so much fun this week. Since I work at Disney, that is always a fun day out when guests visit, but we did something new this week- we went to Gatorland! I have lived here in FL for many years now, but I have never been to Gatorland and I thought it was time we did. We had a great day, and of course the boys loved it! We fed the gators, sat on a gator, watched the Jumparoo show and enjoyed touring the park.
There is often an overpopulation of gators here in FL, and there is a hunting season in order to keep the population under control. So the gators in this park are saved and used for educating people about them, and well of course here in FL, for entertainment purposes.
We all enjoyed learning about the gators, snakes and crocodiles, and seeing how they interact with each other.
Cousin Aaron, Christina, Joshua and Matthew all "screaming" because of the gator behind.
Joshua and Matthew climbing in the big gator mouth.
Christina and Joshua sitting on the real gator!
My sister Polly and I on the gator. Ok, I did feel a little sorry for this gator with all of us sitting on him for a photo, but they promised us that he was very strong and it was not uncomfortable for him.
Jacob even took a turn for a pic.
Gator handler, George, taking a chance with those snapping jaws, and showing us how the gator's lower jaw is the one that snaps!
Here are the gators we were feeding! They were huge! When we threw them the bites of food, they would turn their heads and snap their jaws!
We took a nature walk behind the park on a "bridge trail" way back into the swamp.
This is the beautiful turtle that we saw on the nature walk.
Along the way on our walk, there was a sign that stated we were in an area with a high concentration of water moccasins. Sure enough we saw 4 of them right by the trail. The trail was about a foot above them on the bridge though, so we were safe.
We've driven by that park a lot of times when visiting your neck of the woods and have never gone. Maybe next time we will have to try it...looks like fun!
ReplyDeleteThey are snappy those gators!! and FAST! How fun to sit on one for a picture, but I can't imagine you are relaxed while doing it :-)
ReplyDeleteHow funny= we just went to Gatorland this month too!! We had such a good time and Caden LOVED the Jumparoo and the White Gators. He mostly like them cause Mike and I dorkily made up songs about the "Zombie Gators" LOL.
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