Florida: Day 5

Today was wonderful. :)

We made it to breakfast--all four of us! Well, Amy was awake at least. I brought a poptart up to her.

Today we went to the Everglades. We went on a 1-hour tour, and it was beautiful. Our air boat driver's name was Captain Keith and he was a self-proclaimed "Everbilly"--an Everglades Hillbilly. We saw six alligators! I swear we were close enough that I could have reached out and touched one of them--if I wanted to lose an appendage. My seat was closest to the boat, so if an alligator would have decided he wanted lunch, I would have been his first victim.

There were a lot of interesting birds hopping among the lily pads. My favorite was the Purple Gallinule. It was so colorful. I took a close up picture of one that I'll post with the rest after our vacation is over.

After the tour, we saw an alligator show, performed by another "Everbilly." He got on top of a 200-pound alligator, and held it's mouth shut. Then, he demonstrated how Native Americans used to tie their mouths shut by holding it shut with his chin--so both hands would be free to tie. Then, he did what he called a "face off." He held the top of the alligators mouth with his chin, then pried it's jaws open. Unbelievably, he stuck both of his hands inside the alligators mouth at the same time. He would have gotten his face bitten off if he made a mistake--hence the name "face off."

When we got back to the hotel, Amy and I went down to the beach to lay out for about an hour. Then, we went to the Galeria Mall to shop and grab something to eat. I headed straight for the Apple Store and played with an iPad 2. I can't wait to get one!

Back from the mall, we took our nightly stroll to look for shells. We found more than we were looking for--a dead crab and 5 dead Man-of-War Jellyfish. We had seen a couple purple balloon-looking things washed up on the shore a couple days ago and just thought they were a couple of balloons. Turns out they were the most poisonous jellyfish in Florida. I did some Googling, and those bad boys can sting you even when they're dead and dried up! I'm glad I didn't touch more than the inflated part.

A bath in the jacuzzi tub, and my day is complete. :)

Two whole days left!