Airboat ride

On Tuesday, we headed out to Boggy Creek for an airboat ride. Because of the recent week of rain in Floriday, what used to be fields and a cow pasture were under water. Our airboat driver told us that while this made for a bigger area to travel on, it also made a bigger area for the gators to spread out on, thus making it harder to find them. However, I think the boys loved the ride even given the fact that we only saw one gator along the way.

A bald eagle was perched on a pole right along the shoreline.

This bird is also an endangered species, but I forget what it was called.

We went pretty fast and had to wear our "ear muffs". The fan engine was pretty loud even with them on. Every once in a while the captain would stop the boat and point something out and give some commentary. The boys were permitted to take off their ear muffs then so they could hear.

The black dot out in front of us was a huge gator. The airboat captain estimated it's length at about 13 feet. He explained how to quickly determine a gator's length: distance from end of nose to eyes in inches is the length of the gator in feet (11 inches from nose to eyes = an 11 foot gator).

For kids who are always told to not run over things and stay on the path, it was funny to see them cringe as we rode right over big patches of marsh grass. It had rained right before our tour, so each time we went over the grass, it flicked water on us. One time there were several birds floating in the grass. Most of them flew away to the right or left before we got too close, but there was one who just didn't make it. It flew right up over us, almost hitting the poor lady sitting behind us. It definitely pooped as it flew past us too! Luckily it just hit on the seat beside me and not on me.

Somewhere along the way, Hayden picked up a little friend, a little caterpillar.

The ear muffs by themselves weren't enough for Lucas.

He covered them with his hands too!

Lucas had some good "wind hair" by the time we came back to shore : )

The boys on the airboat Gator Bait.

The boys loved this. Their favorite show lately is Swamp People, so to ride in an airboat was just plain cool for them.