Gatorland

I remember going to an alligator farm while on vacation with my family as a kid and it was something I really wanted to do with our kids this trip. We didn’t make time for it on previous trips down here so I was determined to make it happen this time.

Since we forgot our tickets for Disney and SeaWorld at home, it seemed like the perfect chance to give Gatorland a try.

We were just hanging out watching the gators do their thing when behind us a man threw open the gate to an enclosure and hopped in with them! We thought we were about to get an impromptu show (Zoe thought someone had just lost their mind) but he was just in there grabbing one to take to a show at a local hotel. It was cool to watch him though, he had no fear of them at all. After jumping in and choosing one, he grabbed it by the tail, calmed it down then held it between his thighs so that he could wrap tape around his snout. Then, once his mouth was closed, he put him in bag to transport to the hotel. What a job, right?

We came across a giant croc that we could all take pictures with and while the big kids and Tony jumped right in, the two little's weren’t so sure about it. It took awhile for Harper to get comfortable with the idea and Dakota wasn’t going near it no matter what!

The first show we saw was called Gator Jumparoo. It was basically a couple of guys getting giant gators to jump out of the water for whole chickens. It’s amazing how far they can jump!

We saw some albino gators that were pretty cool.

We came across an exhibit where people were feeding birds and decided we wanted to do that too! It was $1 per stick and we all wanted a try. (Except Zoe who isn’t too fond of birds I guess.) Landon LOVED having the little birds fly to him and he had several visit him during the time we were in there.

As soon as a bird landed on Dakota’s stick, she screamed and threw it! She wasn’t expecting it I guess! I had to hold hers and mine and she was still pretty unhappy with the situation!

Harper enjoyed himself also, but he just liked feeding them while they stood on the floor. He didn’t necessarily want them on him.

They also had some larger birds for us to look at. They sure are beautiful!

We thought it was kind of funny how the birds would ride around on the backs of the alligators! And, check them out in the trees!

It was super hot out so we changed the little kids into their bathing suits so they could play at the water park. I think that may have been their favorite part of the day!

After cooling off in the water, we headed over to see a gator wresting show. Dakota and I went to get seats while everyone else waited in line for water and a snocone.

I got Dakota out of the stroller and went to move it out of the way when all of a sudden, from the corner of my eye, I saw her fall off the bench. She hit the back of her head really hard and she screamed and screamed. It was awful and I’m pretty sure everyone in the place was thinking about how awful a mother I was for turning my head that split second…but, she was okay and she ended up falling asleep in my arms. Tony said that was one way to get her to nap…knock her out. Poor baby!

She slept for a little bit then was back at being her silly self. No damage done to that poor little head. The show was great and fun to watch!

We saw one other show featuring all kinds of creepy crawlies, (think spiders, snakes, etc.) and then we headed back to the hotel for some time in the pool. It was what we needed after a long hot day walking around.

It was a fun day at Gatorland and I’d say anyone on vacation down here should give it a try!