More Beach Fun!

After Gulf World it was back to the house for leftover wedding food and naps.  Then we went down for a little more beach fun.  Noni and Uncle Sean helped the girls build a sandcastle.

And Bug wanted to try out the kayak.

So happy!

The girls had baths and spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

Once they were down for the night, Noni and Karen offered to stay with the girls and T and I got to go out to a nice dinner with Sean, Jen, and two of the other couples from the wedding.  We didn’t realize it until we got there but they had live gators and we got to hold a baby (2 yrs. old)!  Apparently they grow a foot a year!

I was expecting him to feel hard, but he was quite squishy, like a lizard/newt type consistency.  He was totally relaxed, dozing in and out, but perfectly content to be passed around.

And to add to the experience of holding an alligator we got alligator appetizers!  It was actually pretty good!  It was sautéed with vegetables and tasted a lot like chicken or pork.  Sean and I split a sampler platter of shrimp, clams, stuffed crab, mahi mahi, hushpuppies, and corn on the cob.  T doesn’t care for fish that much so he went with the pork ribs. :)

After dinner we were standing around the parking lot talking when one of the workers came out to feed the alligators.  They only feed them every other day so they won’t grow so fast.  He said these ones are about to exceed the legal limit for being in the city.  I guess once they get past a certain length they have to go back to the “gator farm” where he said half of them are sold for food/goods (purses, shoes, etc.) and the other half are released into the wild.  Yikes.  I resolved not to go in any “wild” areas. :)

They had 9 bigger guys and 4 “babies”.  Those shiny dots are some of their eyes.

I missed the first frenzy where they just went nuts over their raw chicken.  They are slowing down a bit here, but still pretty snappy!

The guy had several scars from when he’d gotten bit.  He said they like their food to be rotten so they will hide it under the rock in the middle of the pond till it spoils.  He has to go in and clean it out when it starts smelling too bad.  It was interesting to watch him, but I don’t think I’d care to have that job!