A Trip to the "Alligator Park"

We live not far from a state park known for its population of alligators.  One morning recently, I checked the weather forecast and saw that the day would be exceptionally beautiful, so I decided to take the boys to the "alligator park."

As it turns out, we only saw one alligator in the wild.  He was pretending to be a log, and waiting for dinner to come along.

We did see baby alligators in the nature center, and a nice lady who worked there got one out of the tank for the boys to pet.  We also saw an alligator skeleton in the nature center, and lots of other creepy (live) critters like poisonous snakes and spiders.  I think the nature center was the boys' favorite part of the park.

I, however, most enjoyed our hike.  The boys like to run, so they did.  I reminded them of the story of the tortoise and the hare, but to no avail.

We saw lots of white birds (what are these?)

And grey ones (don't know what this one is either)

And cool trees.  I like live oak trees.  How do they grow such huge branches parallel to the ground without the trunk splitting open?  A marvelous feat of engineering!

The boys liked this hollow one...

By the end of our hike, this tortoise mama was still good to go, but the two hares boys were worn out, so we called it a day.  Look at our dusty feet.