In our roamings around South Florida, we discovered that there is an alligator farm not far from the Everglades. The farms are actually a central part in the rehabilitation and recovery efforts for (formerly) the American Alligator and (now) the American Crocodile. Besides conservation efforts, however, alligator farms also serve as amazing sightseeing stops! We were able to take an airboat ride through the farm, and we found quite a few small gators and a horde of gorgeous birds (it was a little chilly for the really big gators). An airboat is a passenger-carrying, flat-bottomed craft with a giant propeller on the back of the boat. The motor is really loud, but it enables the boat to glide on the surface of the water, which is perfect for navigating the shallow, muddy grass-rivers that make up the area. Everglades Alligator Farm also hosts a large collection of other animals, from various iguanas to many varieties of snakes to parrots to tortoises. They also had a panther and a few species of crocodiles, which are often mistaken for alligators. The most obvious differences between gators and crocs are their coloring: gators are almost black, while crocs are an olive green. The snout of a gator is U-shaped, while a croc's snout is pretty pointy. Also, only the top teeth of a gator are visible when the mouth is closed, but both upper and lower teeth are visible in a croc (not that you'd want to get to close to them for confirmation!). Travis, one of the handlers at the Farm, put on a few demonstrations throughout the day. Mom swallowed her fear of snakes and became very familiar with a 9 foot Ball Python during the snake show, and Travis awed us all with an assortment of stunts involving his face and hands and a gator's jaws during the gator show. We all got to hold a few young gators after the show - even if they were only a foot long and their mouths were taped shut! We also got to watch Travis feed several gators. It really was something to see - the one gator nearly jumped over the fence!
by Joe (son) and Lori
In our roamings around South Florida, we discovered that there is an alligator farm not far from the Everglades. The farms are actually a central part in the rehabilitation and recovery efforts for (formerly) the American Alligator and (now) the American Crocodile. Besides conservation efforts, however, alligator farms also serve as amazing sightseeing stops! We were able to take an airboat ride through the farm, and we found quite a few small gators and a horde of gorgeous birds (it was a little chilly for the really big gators). An airboat is a passenger-carrying, flat-bottomed craft with a giant propeller on the back of the boat. The motor is really loud, but it enables the boat to glide on the surface of the water, which is perfect for navigating the shallow, muddy grass-rivers that make up the area. Everglades Alligator Farm also hosts a large collection of other animals, from various iguanas to many varieties of snakes to parrots to tortoises. They also had a panther and a few species of crocodiles, which are often mistaken for alligators. The most obvious differences between gators and crocs are their coloring: gators are almost black, while crocs are an olive green. The snout of a gator is U-shaped, while a croc's snout is pretty pointy. Also, only the top teeth of a gator are visible when the mouth is closed, but both upper and lower teeth are visible in a croc (not that you'd want to get to close to them for confirmation!). Travis, one of the handlers at the Farm, put on a few demonstrations throughout the day. Mom swallowed her fear of snakes and became very familiar with a 9 foot Ball Python during the snake show, and Travis awed us all with an assortment of stunts involving his face and hands and a gator's jaws during the gator show. We all got to hold a few young gators after the show - even if they were only a foot long and their mouths were taped shut! We also got to watch Travis feed several gators. It really was something to see - the one gator nearly jumped over the fence!
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by Joe (dad)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas is credited with the title of this post as she was a principal conservationist in advocating for restoration of the Everglades. Marjory wrote for the Miami Herald starting in the 1940s and dedicated much of her adult life to preserving this unique ecosystem that occurs no where else in the world. Lake Okeechobee is a giant lake in the middle of the Florida peninsula a bit north of Miami and the Everglades started out as a 50-mile by 80-mile "river of grass" from Lake Okeechobee down to the southern tip of Florida. The water basin of Lake Okeechobee was just the right size and the gradual slope to the southern tip of Florida was just right to create the Everglades with its once abundant stock of wild life...from small fish to big fish to alligators and from insects to small birds to big birds to birds of prey and from rodents to deer to panthers! They say the bird population here now is about 10% of what was present 100 years ago - ouch. The Everglades have suffered tremendously in the last 100 years due to growing populations and massive encroachment from industry and agriculture. The sugar cane industry that is quite prominent on the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee definitely took a beating on many of the displays at the National Park visitor center. We had a terrific walk along the Anhinga Trail and saw tons of alligators, turtles, Blue Herons, Anhinga birds, White Ibis and many other birds we didn't know the names of. Luckily we didn't come across any snakes, but I'm sure they were there. Definitely a unique experience to see so many alligators in their natural environment while walking on a trail that the alligators could also walk on if they were so inclined....luckily they like the water better and their natural instinct is to flee from humans! by Joe (dad)
As you can tell from the picture above, Michael is having a hard time keeping teeth in his mouth! But I don't think even Michael expected to lose a tooth on a roller coaster! Somewhere on the Cheetah Hunt roller coaster, Michael's head bumped his seat harness and out flew his tooth (yes it was already pretty loose)! Guess the tooth fairy will have to go to Busch Gardens to deliver on this tooth! Nanny Ellis gave the kids a belated Christmas present taking us to Busch Gardens in Tampa Florida and we shared a great day of rides, shows and food with Nanny and Pappy Ellis and Uncle Patrick. We were already big fans of Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA and the Tampa version of Busch is also a terrific park but with lots more animals...the train ride is basically a safari complete with giraffes, wildebeests, zebras and all things Africa! by Joe (dad)
We felt VERY fortunate to be in Florida along the Gulf Coast even while Boston and the Northeast endured mountains of snow and bitter cold. We camped at Carrabelle Beach (...well across the street from the beach anyway) a bit south of Tallahassee. Apalachicola National Forest is a vast northern border at that part of the Gulf Coast, so there aren't too many people who just "end up" around Carrabelle....they don't call it "Forgotten Coast" for nothing. The beaches and water are beautiful and the kids were more than happy to build sand forts and splash around even though it wasn't THAT warm outside. We found out the Forgotten Coast was a big training area during World War II for the invasion of Normandy! Camp Gordon Johnston stretched just about the entire length of the Forgotten Coast, but it wasn't exactly a garden spot...the stories we read about camp were full of mosquitoes, hot temperatures and canvas tents with sand floors; but at least the soldiers had the Gulf to cool down in! Aside from the beach, the pirate ship playground next to the historic Crooked River Lighthouse was the biggest hit for the kids. I had a fun time reading the displays in the museum at the the lighthouse and the kids didn't even have to pretend to be interested or wait on me since they could just go outside and play pirates! The Lighthouse was decommissioned by the Coast Guard back in the mid 1990s but was eventually purchased by local interests and restored to proudly broadcast its light all the way to present day! by Joe (dad)
I was looking forward to visiting the sites where so much of our Civil Rights movement took place and visiting Montgomery and Birmingham Alabama didn't disappoint. We set up camp at Maxwell AFB but made an overnight excursion to Birmingham...everyone enjoyed spreading out into a guest house for a night! The Alabama Archives in Montgomery contains a wealth of history both about the Civil Rights movement and about the history of Alabama - could have easily spent several more hours there. They had a display of Spider Martin's iconic pictures from the marches from Selma to Montgomery in March, 1965. Martin worked for the newspaper and he captured pictures of the sheriffs brutally beating the peaceful marchers after they crossed the Emund Pettus Bridge, which sparked an even larger march (like 5 times larger) several weeks later led by Dr. Marin Luther King Jr. We also visited the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery (picture above with Michael touching the water wall). The Memorial is dedicated to the 40 people killed during the Civil Rights events and does a beautiful job remembering those who gave the most powerful witness possible to the injustice of racism. We got to see the State Capitol where the march from Selma culminated as well as the spot where Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and started the Montgomery Bus Boycott that eventually led to the end of legal segregation on buses. The Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham is home to powerful displays capturing both the injustice of "separate but equal" and the positive hope inspired by Martin Luther King and other leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Across the street from the Institute is a beautiful park with the MLK statue pictured above. Across the street in the other direction from the Institute is the 16th Street Church where Fred Shuttlesworth was pastor back in the 1960s and the site where 4 young girls were killed in a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan on a Sunday morning. Every American history book highlights the important events of the Civil Rights movement, but walking the same streets and seeing life-size displays of how things really were...like a "whites only" classroom with good lighting, large desks and plenty of space versus the "separate but equal" classroom with barely a light and cramped quarters with small desks smooshed in together...what a completely more real experience. A couple of our kids got a little "freaked out" by some of the displays and I'm glad a strong impression was made so we will immediately recognize injustice when we see it and remember the courage it took to overcome injustice. by Joe (dad)
What trip to New Orleans would be complete without their famous beignets!! Beignets are light dough squares dunked in oil to cook and topped with loads of powdered sugar....we're talking a wonderful treat! We introduced the kids to beignets the first time we came into town and amazingly, they didn't stop asking how long until we got more :) We took these pictures at the Cafe du Monde that is widely credited for introducing beignets. The original Cafe du Monde is in the French Quarter, but we stopped at the Cafe in Covington, which was only a few minutes from the Bogue Falaya park that had a great fort-styled playground. Hard to beat a fun play at a big playground followed by a plate full of beignets! by Joe (dad)
We are in New Orleans just in time for the Mardi Gras season....yes, it is a season, not just the day before Ash Wednesday. Parades actually started in January! Having been to Mardi Gras in the French Quarter on Fat Tuesday (a LOOOONG time ago), we weren't planning to take the family downtown. Fortunately, Jefferson Parish in Metairie (town next to New Orleans on the west) hosts a Family Gras with family friendly activities and parades! We ventured up to Metairie and found the live music, Mardi Gras colors (green, gold, purple) and tons of food booths with every variety of po-boy sandwich and jambalaya and everything in between. Of course, those dishes were a bit too mysterious to interest the kids and a bit too expensive to interest me, so we grabbed a bite at Burger King before the parade. We got to see the Krewe of Excalibur parade and the kids caught on quick to cheering loudly so the riders on the floats would throw them all kinds of goodies...beads, footballs, drinking cups, glow sticks, etc, etc. We made out with a pretty good collection of "stuff"....Carlos caught a stuffed fish, Mariana caught a stuffed tiger, Michael caught a football and Morgan caught a new plastic cup adorned with the Krewe of Excaliber logo and design. We all had a great time and the kids got to see the best parts of Mardi Gras without all the craziness of downtown! by Joe (son)
We're staying on Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, LA, and in addition to all the huge B-52 bombers flying around everywhere we discovered that they have a really great Wednesday Special at the bowling alley on base. Wednesday also happened to be Mom's birthday, so after a very enjoyable birthday dinner for Mom at Olive Garden we shipped off for the bowling alley to take advantage of the low prices. We all had a great time. Mariana enjoyed rolling her balls down the little dinosaur slides and dad awed us all with his ability to throw five balls all game and still tie for third place (he cleaned up Mariana's frames from time to time)! Carlos, William and Michael all enjoyed themselves, and William displayed an uncanny nack for getting the ball to curve at just the right time to take out 8 pins! I personally would prefer not to advertise the details of my place in the tally, but we all had a lot of fun nonetheless! |
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July 2015
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