Alligator Alley

  After talking to a new friend who has been here in Navarre for all of 5 minutes, I realized I need to get out and do more. If not for my sake, then for my family's. So we went to Alligator Alley up in Summerdale, Alabama this past Saturday. 

  The girls were looking forward to it very much, as were Andrew and I. Abby always talks about the alligators at the zoo here in gulf breeze and how the babies are "so cute!".  After looking at pictures online and seeing that you can hold a baby alligator, I knew we had to go to Alligator Alley.

  We arrived right as the feeding for the big gators was starting. The big ones are anywhere from 6-13 feet long. Pretty dang big. After the feeding we continued down the path where they had a pit of 1-2 year old gators and another pit of 4-5 year old gators. When throwing in a food pellet they crawled all over each other to get it, just like they do in the movies. It was cool. 

  They also had a lady set up at a picnic table with a one year old gator for anyone to hold if they wanted to. Of course, I was all about that and knew my girls would be too. ... Wrong! They were quite intimated by all the onlookers and just a little bit nervous about that baby gator. Andrew held the baby gator for a family picture and then I held it after him to show Kate and Abby that they had nothing to be afraid of. They weren't fooled, so we moved on. 

   The end of the cement path led to a bridge that went up onto a wooden path/bridge so you could walk "safely" around and above the gator infested swamp. The gators didn't bother me one tiny bit. It was the SPIDERS that terrified me. Like, massive spiders, everywhere! The size of your entire hand. It was awful. Right out of jarasic park. Like, this is where nightmares come true. 

  We noticed the spiders, like how could you not?, all the way back in the parking lot when we arrived. There were a few dozen spun up in between the tree tops. And once in the park, they were in the bushes and trees along the path. But when we were on the wooden walk way over the swamp, they seemed so in your face, it was terrifying. I told Kate and Abby that they were to stay in the middle of the path because the spiders were only a couple inches on the other side of the chain linked fence. So, absolutely NO touching the fence. 

   When rounding a corner Abby started to let her arm hang a bit too freely and she came within an INCH to touching a spider that happened to be on our side of the fence! Gaahhhh! I kinda freaked out and jumped back a few feet. I told Abby and Kate that if a spider got on them I'd run the other way so they'd better not get one on them, as my previous reaction had attested. Andrew believed me. 

  One minute after that encounter I was done. Too many monstrous spiders for me to handle. We headed back to solid ground.  

  On the way back to the car we stopped by the lady with the baby gator for the girls' second chance to hold it. Abby decided to give it a go. And she fell in love. 20 seconds after giving it back to the nice lady, she started to ask to hold it again. The lady was kind enough to oblige our 3 year old. 

  A second holding wasn't enough for Abby. She was sad the whole way back to the car because she wanted to hold the gator yet again. She cheered up after a bit and was proud she held the gator all by herself.  All in all, a great experience for our family.