December 30, 2016: Alligator Overload and Winding Down Franko Family Gathering

Following the airboat ride we went to the alligator show. There was an alligator presentation where an alligator handler was in a cage with "Charlie," a ten foot alligator.  The handler told Linda that he keeps the alligator very well fed!  The show was about what you'd expect from an alligator handler in the middle of the Everglades in remote Florida.

JP holding a small alligator.

He got Charlie to open his mouth by tapping on his nose, showed us Charlie's many teeth, which grow back anytime one is lost, and put his hand in Charlie's open mouth. We learned that once open, his mouth stays open and only snapped shut quickly as a response to touch inside his mouth. You can put your hand, in but DON'T touch anything in his mouth.


We then moved to a small cage that had a small alligator we could hold to see how it felt, (very soft) and took pictures with it.





Next we moved to a small fenced area with a pond that had 21 alligators just laying around in it. Many were over ten feet long. I wondered what they fed that many alligators.

Alligator lunch!

We didn't know they were going to feed them and almost left when the handler said "Time to feed the alligators. If you think they are slow and never move watch the feeding." They brought in two full size wheel barrows with chunks of beef liver and chicken quarters and started throwing it over the fence.








Clearly the alligators know the routine. They all raced over to the fence where the food was being tossed over. Definitely a feeding frenzy!





This huge alligator was having trouble getting the large chunk of liver down but he wouldn't give it up. I hated to see the alligators in such an unnatural situation but I will say it was impressive to see them going after the food.

At a final stop at the gift shop Matt found a few more fun items. No one admitted purchasing any but we weren't watching too closely!

Matt, Wendy

After being pretty much on alligator overload, Matt and Wendy enjoyed the warm weather and flowers on the walk back to the cars.

Matt next to smallest post pffice

Next it was a visit to the smallest U.S.Post Office in the United States. Linda spotted it as we drove across Alligator Alley and we were quite close from the airboat place. Everyone decided they wanted to see it.

By this time we were getting hungry so it was on to the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City.  The name describes it well. It was built in the late 1800's and has been visited by five U.S. Presidents. The owners have worked hard to maintain the original decor and it is a fun place to visit. Wendy is checking out the hunting "trophies" from the past. We had stopped here twice in the boat in the past. It's a winding  8 mile trip east through mangroves in the Chokoloskee Bay from the gulf (on our way to Banana Bay). Definitely a fun 'old Florida' place.

Wendy standing by stuffed alligator.

Kaitlyn, Jillian and JP

The food was good, especially the strawberry shortcake.










This fun filled day was getting exhausting. We received a nice surprise phone call from my sister Terri and her husband Scott.  They decided to drive down from Bradenton to join our group for the evening activity, the Naples Botanical Garden Holiday Light show, and dinner.  They are always a lot of fun and we were very happy they could make it. We decided to skip the afternoon swim in the pool and rest up for the night. On to the light show. A tremendous amount of work went into the show as many plants, trees and walkways were lit up with creative patterns. The tower below looked like a huge origami sculpture made of paper but it was actually metal.

I included a couple pictures to give you the idea but I couldn't get pictures that did the show justice.

My favorite lighting display was this huge tree with the falling lights, it looked like fireworks.

It was 8:00 PM by the time we finished the light show. Ordinarily we'd be winding down toward bedtime, but not with this Franko group. We would not get together again before people headed home so it was on to dinner and an opportunity to catch up with Terri and Scott.  The day ended with goodbyes around 10:00 PM.

Matt and Wendy had a late afternoon flight on Friday so we were able to spend most of the day with them.  It was breakfast at Waffle House and then Matt and I played a round of golf while Wendy and Linda relaxed at the clubhouse. 

We dropped Matt and Wendy at the airport about 4:00 PM and started the 4 hour drive back to Banana Bay.  We did not want to drive into the Keys on New Year's Eve given the expected heavy traffic with folks headed to Key West so we just drove all the way on Friday and arrived at the boat about 9:00 PM.  It was a great  trip.