Tuesday, February 16, 2016

A Trip to the Everglades

A happy Tuesday to you, friends!
Last week, on Feb. 10th, we took a field trip to the Everglades. What an amazing time we had! After waiting for about an hour for everyone to arrive, we finally got in line and were able to step into the air boat fairly quickly after that.  Here's a video I took while we were speeding along on the water. 
 

This is the air boat we rode on.
 
If you look real closely, you can see an alligator resting on the left side of the bank.
 Here he is. He's appropriately named Scar because one of his front legs is missing.

 These birds are called Purple Gallinules. Our air boat driver called and coaxed him to come over to the boat. He even held one of these birds on his arm. 
These beautiful yellow flowers were easy to pull out of the water. The drive showed us how to make a necklace out of them.  We learned that one of the biggest problems in the Everglades are the pythons. A 6 ft. python can kill a 10 ft. gator. But the gators can be just as dangerous. We heard this true story from someone else who rode in a different air boat. 
There was a man (the grinch who stole Christmas presents lol) who used to steal presents from houses at Christmastime. One night he stole presents and was being chased by the police. He  escaped from them, but ended up running onto the Everglades property and was eaten by a huge mother alligator. The gator was killed after that.

 After the air boat ride, we listened to a presentation about the alligators by a lady who had worked with reptiles about 13 years.

 After the presentation, we had a picnic lunch.  There was a herd of about 6-8 Peacocks under the ramp, and a few of them wandered up the ramp. It was quite interesting to watch the wild Peacocks roam around the picnic tables. One of the Peacocks pecked sunflower seeds out of Deborah's hand.
After a long drive (and being stuck in traffic) we made it home. Mommy made Taco Soup and Sarah made egg rolls. A friend and her daughter, who had gone on the field trip with us, came over for supper and we had a delightful time with them. We set up our tent and the daughter camped out with us. In the early morning, the temperature was 40 something degrees. Last time we camped out it was on one of the coldest days as well.  :) 

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed hearing about our interesting and informative field trip. Until next time...
Walk with the King!
~Ashley
Proverbs15:13
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.

13 comments:

  1. Hi Ashley!
    This was a neat post. I loved reading about what you got up to. The Everglades sound awesome. They're in Florida, right? I had no idea there was so many alligators in the US. For some reason I thought they were mainly in Australia! We have no wild alligators or crocs in New Zealand.
    Bonnie

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    1. Hi Bonnie!
      The Everglades were really awesome to visit. Yes, they're in Fl. Our guide said there were around 500,000 alligators in the Everglades. Our tour guide told us how big the Everglades is, but I forget the numbers. I read somewhere that's it 60 miles wide and over 100 miles long...I divided 500,000 into 160 miles (how big the Everglades is altogether) to estimate how many gators there are in a mile, and I got 3,125...talk about alot of gators.

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    2. How cool! Wow, 500,000 alligators is rather a lot. Wouldn't like to be stuck in the Everglades on a stormy night, lol! Sounds like a cool place to visit, though.

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  2. I have read about the Everglades. It must have been such an interesting visit. But alligators...no thank you!

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  3. Such a lovely day field trip! I enjoyed seeing the pictures of the everglades and how fun it must have been to see the alligators... from a distance! I read your comment above about how many alligators are there in the Everglades, that is incredible! Enjoyed this post today :)

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  4. That looked awesome! I would like to visit there sometime! I loved your pics!

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  5. Whew! Those gators look so intimidating! When I used to live in FL, I made the trip from the east coast home to the west coast to see my parents every weekend. My path of travel led me across Alligator Alley, and my mind often went to "what if I ran off the road" and other such thoughts...I didn't rest easy until I got home to my sweet parents! I am glad you had a wonderful time on your field trip. Out of all the years I lived down there, I never did ride on an airboat. It always sounded like fun, though! :)

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    1. The airboat ride was a blast! I've heard of Alligator Alley, but I can't remember where or what it is.
      Thank you for commenting, Mrs. Smith. :)

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  6. Wow! It must have been so neat to visit the Everglades! You took some beautiful pictures!

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    1. Thank you. It is a very neat place to visit.

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  7. Oh wow! This sounds like a total blast!
    And alligators!!! That makes it even better, doesn't it!

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  8. Wow that sounds very exciting! I am sure my boys would very much enjoy a trip like that though me not so much! :) So scary to think of how big they can get......and the snakes too!

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  9. I have always wanted to do this -- Your video confirmed it!

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