Day 4: Gator Country

We were up early again, had breakfast at the hotel and then hit the road.  It's never too early to start exploring college options.   Since we were in gator country, we decided to find the University of Florida.  This was the first part of the campus that we found.

Not exactly what I had in mind so we continue to drive around and finally found the main part of the campus.....including the football stadium.

There were many people out looking around so we decided to park and do the same.  Once at the football stadium, we saw people going inside so we followed along.  All I can say is wow.  There were some athletes running bleachers and less than 50 others just looking around.  As far as I know, this would never be allowed on Texas college campuses.  Most of the time they are gated up and closed by a pad lock.  Not that I am a Florida fan but this was an amazing experience.

We were able to go all the way down to the bottom, just not on to the field.

 

Carson taking it all in....after a tumble down the stairs.

 

 

We can't forget that this is also the home to ....Gatorade..

Maybe we have a future gator in our midst.....she did say that this is a little to far from home.  We will see if she still fills that way when she's 18.

We left there and head to the Orlando area.  Again we have never done anything in Orlando except for Disney World.  Thanks to shows like Swamp People, Haylee is just obsessed with alligators.  Once she found out about Gatorland, she insisted that we go to it.  So we built in an extra day before we were to go to Disney to take in the sites.  I was pleasantly surprised by how big it was and how much there was to do.  The kids were in "gator" heaven.

The line to get in was so long, I dropped David off and I went to park.  To help pass the time in line, they had a worker with a little alligator that the kids could pet.

Haylee did not hesitate to pet it.  Carson on the other hand wasn't so sure.  Finally he petted it and so did I.  The top is hard while the side/underneath part is soft/leathery feeling.

 

Thankfully, I have never seen so many alligators and crocodiles in my life.

 

They were so excited....

 

The first show we saw was the Gator Wrestlin' Show.

 

Then the kids had their chance.

Carson was going to do it then he wasn't and then...

He did it!!!!

Gatorland is located between two swamps.  This was a very cool way to see the swamp up close.  Thankfully we didn't see any critters along the way.

We saw some huge alligators.

They also have a breeding area for alligators and egrets.  We saw several nests that had babies.

Carson had a great time feeding the animals.

Silly kids...

The kids feeding the hungry gators.

 



After this fiery photo, the kids cooled off at the splash ground.

 

 

The last show of the day was the Gator Jumparoo Show.  This is where the dangle meat over the gators to get them to jump out of the water.

 

 

 

Again.. all I can say is WOW...

 

If you can squeeze this in while in Orlando, it's definitely worth the stop.

 

Tomorrow.... DISNEY WORLD BOUND