If you've never been on a swamp tour, you have no idea what you're missing out on. This was my third time, and I swear it gets better each time. This was the smallest tour I've been one, only 10 people total on the boat, where as the other times, the boat was packed. This makes a difference, because if you're sitting on one side of the boat, and the gators are on the oppisite side and the boat is packed, you can't just get up and walk to the other side to see it. You have to wait until the gators are on your side of the boat. But since this time it was only a few people, we could get up and walk around.
This was our first stop on a three day vacation. It was a nice trip, wasn't too far from home (about 4 hours) and we love staying in our state. Louisiana has so much to offer.
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| Tour boat. Trust me, if I got on it, it's safe. I don't do boats. |
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| Riding along |
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| Two of the kids and a gator... scary |
On the tour, the guide feeds the gators chicken parts, and also... are you ready for this?...
Marshmallows.
Yes, that's right marshmallows. They usually let the kids throw a few, but since my kids were the only kids on the tour, they got to throw a bunch to the gators. The guide told us that they tried several different things before the marshmallows. They tried biscuits and toast, but neither really worked that well. Then they started using Cheetos. Which worked great, the gators loved 'em... but then the coast guard pointed out, "Hey, man, you're teaching the gators to come to bright orange, that orange means food. Dude. What color are the life jackets?" So they tried the marshmallows. Don't worry, marshmallows are safe for all the swamp animals.
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| Jonah spotted a gator! |
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| Alright! This is what we were waiting for! The guy behind Jonah had no idea that this was going to be part of the tour. For a minute, I thought he was going to jump off the boat. |
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| Peyton - "give it to me. give me give me give me..." |
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| He was so happy to have the gator! They all got a turn, and Peyton kept steeling the gator. |
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| hi! |
We had a great time, and we plan on going back soon! This was our first family vacation with out dragging back up with us (aka, grand parents). I was nervous about keeping up with three kids away from home, but we kept up with all of them and no one was fed to the gators :)
Part Two of Vacation 2011, The Audubon Zoo.
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