When we pulled up to this place Scott and I were a little skeptical. There was an old, beat up sign with a hut sitting in the middle of nowhere. We walked in and were pleasantly surprised! I don't know what I thought...you really don't need a whole lot of decoration in the middle of a swamp do you?
Earlier that morning I had called Alligator Alley to get some information and was told that we needed to be there at 1:00pm as this is when they feed the alligators and this was an exciting thing to watch, so off we went and pulled in just in time.
We walked down a path along the swamp and there were TONS of gators everywhere...sunbathing. I took a picture of them piled on the banks, but it didn't turn out, so you will just have to use your imagination. TONS of alligators laying on top of each other sunbathing. AMAZING!
Once we got to the feeding site we were excited! Not knowing what to expect we took our places on a bridge. The person feeding the gators was very educated and answered all questions thrown his way. He had a cooler sitting in front of him with a long stick, like a broom stick without the broom. He began beating the top of the cooler with the stick in a rhythm that reminded me of an Indian dance or something. It wasn't two seconds until the first gator made the turn coming to the feeding place! This was their dinner bell! Once there were gators everywhere he opened the cooler and pulled out a pig! Well...not a whole pig, but a cut up into pieces pig! EEEWWWWW! He would point to an alligator and they would open their mouth and he would throw the piece of pig into their jaws! As gross as this sounds it was pretty cool. About halfway through the feeding a gator they named "Fat Albert" lept up onto the bank right next to the guy feeding! SCARY! The girls got to feed the alligators too and they were excited. No, they did not feed them the pig, but these "poop pellets", that is what they looked like, that they threw over the bridge and watched the gators chomp, chomp, chomp!
Fat Albert was hungry!! After the feeding frenzy was over we were on our way to see the main attraction ~ Captain Crunch! This is an alligator that was brought there for devouring people's pets in Florida. Yep...he likes dogs. He is also the record holder for the most pounds of pressure per bite! YIKES!
Bryleigh posing with Captain Crunch On our way back to the front of the park (there is tons to see) one of the guys that works at the park asked if anyone wanted to hold an alligator...you know Scott was all over that one! This alligator was about 3-4 years old and weighed about 10 lbs.
Scott and Bryleigh holding an alligator!
Bryleigh with a bunch of baby alligators. We had a great afternoon at Alligator Alley! It has been the topic of many conversations since we have been home...so much so that Addyson goes around telling people that she feeds alligators. I am just waiting for animal control and CPS to show up at our house.
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