The Florida Swamps & Northern Everglades...Our Day

Florida Cypress Trees in the chain of water ways off the Kissimmee River.

They are the only tree that will survive out in water without drowning. Those roots that look like new tree shoots sticking out of the water are called Cypress knees. They are the roots that grow upward instead of downward only when water levels rise to survive.
We floated on air... literally through these two trees Twice... making my heart skip a bit.
Loving the gliding feeling that an air boat give... even when turning sharply.

Young Gator... maybe a year old.

A mama gator's well planned nest. Larger than needed as to confuse prey from finding her scentless eggs. Depending on how hot or cool our weather has been determines the gender of her babies. They will either be all boys or all girls... all meaning, 35 -75 eggs.

I was waiting for a 'Lake Placid' moment here... and I even asked our Captain Carl if gators ever attack these cattle and he jokingly laughed and said, "we love our gators so much that we feed 'em steak!"

A true swamp... the marsh was a little to the right, and in need of rain.
(That cow crossed right behind our boat here)

We saw more gators than I cared to keep counting... guessing close to 30.

Gators.

They can live up to 3-4 months without food. They can go underwater for up to an hour without breath. They can sit idle with just the tip of nostrils breaking waters surface for days without moving a muscle. They have changed very little if at all from when they roamed with the dinosaurs. They are untrainable with practically no brain at all. Once they are feed by human... it is the 'kiss of death'. They will then seize the next opportunity to dine on/by a human without hesitation and will most likely be put to death.

little gator

Wild Turkeys!

Mr. Walt Disney himself is party to blame for much of the destruction of Florida's wetlands. After he came and bought land (that used to look just like this) he paved the way, essentially showing every rancher in Florida how to drain, dredge, & fill up the wetland....61% was lost after he built WDW.

We could travel on this water without ever touching land until we reached the 10,000 Islands and the Atlantic ocean. Amazing how the ecosystem is inter-connected. The recent Gulf oil spill brings this grave reality close to home for our statesmen.

stunning banana lily... part of marsh life

Birds of Florida will attract even those uninterested in nature.

We are second only to Alaska in Bald Eagle population.

Starting our "two hour tour... two hour tour" (Gilligan Island song!) Notice this will be the last picture you see Ella in a life jacket.... quickly after putting her in it, I realized what a bad idea that was. This was Dan and the kids first air boat ride. Our very own Captn Carl turned controls over to Captn Dan just before heading home. I believe he is what we called 'hooked'! Captn Carl declared Ella to be the youngest air boat traveler in this part of the Everglades in all his many years of swampin'.

Ben was a bit worried about how loud the boat could get at start up, but he was non-stop talking about how fun it was after leaving. And he is already 'planning' our next trip on the air boat. He said he liked it better than Dr. Hackett's ski boat.

Ella & Ali never even check up. They were air boat lovers from the time they laid eyes on it until we stepped back on the dock.

A quick snooze during the mid morning nap hour for Ella and then she was back in the action.

Ben was begging to get out of the boat and into the water... which surprised me since he was seeing gators.