Gator Tale. Destin.ation Continued

Gators.

Gator Grimaces.

Sunday we lounged a good majority of the morning in doors. The kids ate an exorbitant amount of powdered doughnuts & Cool Ranch Doritos for breakfast (something that would never happen at home) and watched movies in bed thru mid morning. When we had mustered the energy to stir, we packed our coolers and headed to the beach. The water was perfect, but the shore, it was HOT. When we'd had all the sun we could handle without an actual meal, we retreated to the condo for lunch. I decided my sun was just the right shade of pink, but John and the kiddo's went for a second round at the pool until the sun went down. We'd planned to grill out, but when the meat was still frozen solid we opted for a plan B. Fudpuckers. The tourist trap of a restaurant that just sucks you in. The atmosphere at Fudpuckers just screams vacation, and who can pass that up. As the wait time was an hour, we had plenty of time to explore the grounds. One of the big draws is the "live alligators". Now, an Alligator, is an Alligator, and I'm not saying I'd wanna hop in for a dip with them or anything, but we're talking about like, baby Alligators here...TONS of them. After gazing at them for a while, we decided the only logical next step was to get our picture taken with one.

We had a stare down competition. He won.

Being the super "cool" parents that we are, we thought the kids would be super excited,

I mean, I would have been stoked at that age to tell my friends/teachers/fellow band of new children friends from the condo that I had held an Alligator AND had the picture to prove it. Not these kids. Well...not ALL of these kids. Annabelle of course was in, she was pumped and ready to wrestle a gator should it become necessary. Heaven was hesitant, but after a few minutes to think it over thought it would make a cool enough photo to brag about, and so long as she didn't have to be the one to ACTUALLY hold it, she was in. Gavin was out. Out as in he wanted no part of it whatsoever, and wished to not even enter the room. Of course, being good parents we trumped his wishes with soothing words of "trained professionals", "it's just a baby" & repeatedly pointed out that the gator's mouth was securely taped shut rendering him "harmless". With much persuasion (forcing) Gavin agreed to come along. You have to realize, Gavin HATES new things. He doesn't generally want to try...well anything, but MOST of the time once the situation is actually present, he enjoys it. This was not the case today. Upon entering the room the "trained professional" (who's got to be making sweet money for a high schooler) gives us his spiel about Alligators being wild animals who don't particularly like to be photoed(..yeah yeah). Annabelle volunteer's to hold the middle and tail of the Alligator while I hold the head/mouth (danger zone). Heaven decides to stand by John near the tail, but not actually touching it (though she did warm up to the idea and pet the gator on several occasions (quickly)), and Gavin stands completely behind us all. The only real instructions given are that Annabelle and I should HOLD TIGHT and smile. Of course the second the "professional" steps back to take the photo the Alligator flinches and in about 1 millisecond I'm the only one holding the alligator (who's now in a choke hold), Heaven is screaming, Gavin is crying and Annabelle is laughing ::sigh::

Heaven warmed up to the Gators with time

After a few minutes of total chaos we are able to get everyone calmed down to a reasonable level. Gavin is now about a foot behind me and John for the photo, & Annabelle has been relieved of her tail holding duties & given the just place your hand here option to retain cool photo cred instead. It took about 4 pictures before we gave up and just accepted that there was no way this picture was getting any better. That's what we get for openly paying to take pictures with Alligators I guess.

This is a picture OF our picture. Please note the extreme choke hold I'm giving the poor baby Gator.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful in comparison. Dinner was good & they had numerous Justin Beiber videos playing while we were there...much to Heaven's delight. Gavin came around eventually and did opt to "feed" the gators. From a fishing pole that is, about 20 ft above the gator area...but he quickly decided he'd had enough Gators for a life time & turned his pole over to the girls....maybe there's hope of him becoming a Seminole after all.