Florida trip day one

cruisin' the Everglades on the airboat

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Now that all of that is done with, I can get back to life.

Brenna and myself took a small trip. We were over due. We flew to Miami, with intentions of going to the Everglades and the Keys, looking for cool stops and adventure along the way. We really hoped to see animals and catch some nice weather. Here is day one of the trip. These are only a select few photos as we snapped a lot. We didn't do so well getting to Florida though. The airline screwed us over, providing us with a transfer that was unattainable, forcing us to miss the flight they provided us with. Ridiculous. So we had to take a later flight, killing our afternoon plans. I was sitting in an airport waiting to start my vacation after having worked the night before and only getting a tiny bit of sleep on the plane. We finally arrived in Miami, but to only find that our luggage didn't make the trip and it never even left our transfer location. Brutal. We didn't waste anytime. We got into the rental car and headed straight to the everglades. We stopped at Coopertown air boat rides. The first one we could find before it got too late. Our guide was super and our small vessel only had 2 other passengers. So it was pretty awesome. Things turned around and we got our luggage delivered later that night at 3am... but we trooped it out and chugged along. I apologize as I cannot remember all the names of the animals. All these pics were shot with the T3i - Tamron 18-270mm lens. Check back for more pics soon. I have 5 or 6 days to upload yet.

our mangrove trail that is home to lots of wildlife

happy with this pic as we were both on the move here

this colourful guy knew we were good news

our guide hand fed the birds along the way. He has a very good relationship with the wildlife along the way

our first glimpse of the american alligator

another colourful bird with legs that looks like they are from an ACME rubber chicken

another shot of the Everglades

very exciting to see these in the wild. They have a very cool slithering swim to them, like a snake. Very powerful, smooth, and super stealth. Almost ominous to see them around and coming towards the boat. Oh, and you only see them when they allow themselves to be seen. It's nuts how easily they disappeared into CRYSTAL CLEAR WATER without even swimming away. They were ninjas. You wouldn't stand a chance if they choose to pounce. This guy was about 10ft long.

Brenna was as excited as I was

this lady gator was pretty curious

another smaller female gator came around and then she chased her off. They can be very territorial

the sun goes down in the glades

not too many of the shots can you see their teeth, so I like this one

a few visible differences between gators and crocs are; gators have a much more rounded snout compared to the tapered (pointed) snout of a croc. You can only see a gator's top teeth when their mouths are closed (overbite), whereas with a croc you can see top and bottom criss-crossing up and down together. Crocs are lighter and gators dark coloured. Gators are abundant in Florida, and the american crocodile is very rare and endangered now, usually only found near salt water areas on the outside of the Everglades and the Keys.

as you can see in the above picture, she was quite curious. She did actually try to get into the boat. I was snapping a pretty close photo overboard as she cam up and stuck her head straight up against the side. She then lunged and tried to get in. The guide was quick to tell me to get back haha. She easily could have come on board, she has the tail power no problem. We had to move the boat forward a bit to avoid a situation that I secretly prayed for.

so much fun to see, hard to explain. They are f-ing dinosaurs man. This girl was about 8ft long.

her competition showed up again, but was quick to scatter off when chased 

Brenna and baby

a nice closeup. Gators actually have 3 eyelids. 1 for sleeping. 1 for fighting (very protective shield). And 1 for swimming, basically built in goggles, giving them superior vision under water.

me and the baby