Trespassers will be Eaten!!

Six of us went off to Orlando today. On the way we stopped at a golf course and saw an alligator in a pond. (for free). We got really close.

We all fit in the big Biffa car that Huffle hired. We started off by going to Downtown Disney.

Mr Gator asked them to give their most excited faces or the man at the car park would turn us away.

Mummy's favourite

The boys thought that we were in Disney already and were looking for Mickey and the gang. We were actually only there to take them to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Since we have been here Smallest hasn't been eating much because by the time we get to dinner in the evening he is too tired to eat (If only I had that problem), so we decided to eat at midday instead, however he still didn't really eat much. Too excited by the elephants and the storms. The food wasn't brilliant but we did promise the boys.

We had a quick walk around and then got back in the car and drove to Gator World.

All of us.

Small holding on to a Gator's tooth

Smallest holding on to a Gator Tooth

I have never seen so many alligators in one place. There were tiny ones, huge ones, middle ones, sleepy ones, scary ones, docile ones, loads piled on top of each other. Lone ones who skulked in their own enclosure. We also saw white ones that kept out of the sun.

There was a cage you could stand in full of budgies. There were hundreds of little birds and they stood on your hands, arms, head. Lovely little birds. The boys went in and the birds sat and walked on them but they didn't like it so they left. Mr & Mrs Gator and I stayed in for ages.

**Feed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag**

There were really big tortoises too. Massive.

The boys got to feel this one

lovely bit of greenery

Nice bird

Mrs Gator was NOT scared of this bird

Bird having a ride on a Gator's back

Then we made our way to the Gator Wrestling. A man talked to us for a while about the history of the Gator. Then another man came in and pulled a gator out of the water and sat on it. He played around with it. Made it do tricks. It was really good.

Then he got people up to sit on it and have ear photos taken. Smallest had a go. Small wouldn't do it. Mr gator did it too, but he was too scared to go on his own so Smallest went with him.

We walked around there for a while and then got in the car again and drove back to Disney Downtown.

There were loads of huge Lego characters

I don't know who this dude was but I liked him

Again the boys were so excited because we were sooooo close to proper Disney. We go there tomorrow, can they get any more excited?

We had a lovely day today and it great to spend the whole day with the Gators. It was a long hot day. It will be longer tomorrow and probably hotter. By the time we got home the boys were tired and they went straight to sleep.

 

Last night Huffle, Mr Gator and I watched Swamp Men and today we watched Storage Wars. brilliant - hope we can get these back home.

Some of the photos were taken by Mr & Mrs Gator. I haven't paid them for these photos or even asked their permission to use them but as they were better than mine (or more likely that my camera was out of charge) I give them credit for them (but I can't remember which ones they were). thanks anyway Gators.

 

Afternoon at the Museum III

Apart from Smallest waking up at 10:30pm with earache crying his socks off, and coming into our bed and poking me in the eye every time I woke up, we all had a good night's sleep. Huffle had to go out at 12 midnight to the all night pharmacy to buy some Iboprofen for him. He woke up fine.

We had a very leisurely morning, breakfast in, puzzles, Small did a bit of his Vacation Homework, games, Gator watching (Barry actually came out of the water today, we saw his tail!). We also watched a heron catch a fish and play with it before finally eating it.

Barry

Barry?

No, not really!!

We all went off to Dinosaur world today. It was only about 30 minutes away in the car. The closer we got, the warmer it was. We got our wristbands and started walking around. There were plenty of dinosaurs around. Lovely trees. Lots of greenery and ferns. Nice and cool out of the sun. We walked around half of it and then decided to go and find some food. They don't have food there, that is why they give you a wristband so you can come and go as you please. In the giftshop Small found a game called DinoMonopoly - I thought about it but didn't buy it.

Smallest was disappointed that the Dinosaurs weren't real!!

Lovely trees

This one was hungry

We got in the car and drove for ages finding nothing. Then we finally stopped at a sign that said "Cuban Sandwiches" and thought we would give it a try. It was baguette filled with something then toasted and then filled with salad. The man in the shop was amazed when Huffle took out a $20 before he told him the total $19.90. We took our cuban delicacies back to the Dinosaur Park to eat them in the cool shade.

We found a nice place to eat, dropped most of it on the floor and watched the ants carrying it away. Amazing little things till they tried to bite us.

We could feed the koi for 25c but our boys just shook the machine till they got free fish food. (several times).

We went off to the Fossil Dig where the boys got to dig in the sand for as many fossils as they could find and then they got to keep their favourite three. They found shark teeth, stingray teeth and a stem from a water lily.

We walked some more.......

These are my favourite. Vegetarians

They are trying to look scared of the T-Rex

Trees and dinosaurs

There was a park and the boys played on it for a while but it was in full sun so we tried to move them on but..........

Smallest climbed up here and got stuck (I rescued him once I took a photo)

This was a leg of an Ultrasaurus - very big

Palaeontology - They got to brush away the sand to reveal the bones of a stegosaurus

Huffle wanted this one taken (yes it's a tree) but we liked the sun shining through

The was a local hispanic worker, we liked the fact he was riding on the back of the mower, riding round cutting the grass, cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Nice tree

Nice tree roots

This is where they were free-feeding the koi

I liked the longness of these

When we finished looking at the Dinosaurs, we decided to check out the museum. We couldn't get in to the museum so we were going to walk away but Small turned something and got us in. We were walking around (very twisty turny) and we could hear voices and noises. I had this feeling that we weren't supposed to be there. Half way round all the lights went out and it went quiet. I shouted out several times "hello can you turn the lights back on please?", then someone shouted "who's there?". "we're visitors" we shouted back. We walked round to the voices (when they put the lights back on!). We weren't supposed to be in there, it was a new part which had animatronics. The owners let us have a preview - first ones to see the new display. It was good but not brilliant, the boys liked it, that's the main thing.

Then we left after Huffle stood and gave constructive criticism to the Manager and a couple of people who worked there.

We left and decided to look for somewhere to have an ice-cream. It was Huffle's birthday after all and we hadn't had one yet. (we've been here two days!!). We drove till we spotted a Baskins and Robbins and stopped. On the way we saw Mickey Mouse dressed in a Karate costume so Smallest decided to karate kick him! (just pretending).

While we were driving we saw a school bus and Huffle saw another photo opportunity.........

bet yer never smelt a real (american) school bus before.....

We came home, played on the wii, had dinner, boys had baths and before we knew it the Gators were home. HURRAH. It was lovely to see them.

Their dog, Eric, who had been staying with Mrs Gator's Mum, had got into a scrap with another dog there and got part of his ear chewed off! OUCH, so he had to go to the Dog Doctor and came home with a collar.

Poor Eric, he wasn't happy. He wanted to run around and he couldn't.

Mr Gator with all their bags!!!

Smallest had a tantrum this evening and I ended up ringing Mickey Mouse. I left a message on his answer phone to say that Smallest wasn't behaving and eventually he calmed down.

Mr Gator rang 'Cinderella' and she can get us in to Disney on Friday so that is when we are all going together. Huffle and I and the boys will probably go by ourselves on Thursday to Magic Kingdom.

Tomorrow we are going to Orlando.