Showing posts with label geriatrics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geriatrics. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Everglades: Gators (with more Geriatrics)



Another reason the boats were slow other than for the geriatrics is because they make too much noise for the gators.  In case you do want to see some gators without the thrill of a fan boat, the park rangers give you directions to a road parallel to a river filled with leathery, snappy faces.  No, and I don’t mean the geriatrics from the previous post.  Bonus points if you get that reference.



That gator was less than 10 yards away from us.  I rolled up our window.


Meanwhile, this dumbass, who coincidentally has the same red Corolla we did, opened their car door to get a better view of the gators.  The gator is that little brown bump in the lower right corner.  Two questions for this Darwin Award Nominee.  First, we saw how slowly geriatrics move after the infamous soda incident; what chances do you have of surviving when that fast critter comes charging toward you?  Second, how does taking one step out of the car improve your picture shot when you could just press “zoom”?



This gator started swimming over to us then dipped under water half way.  We didn’t see it resurface for at least three minutes.  I bet it wanted to get its revenge for its sibling that became our tasty gator cheesecake.  

That's right.  Swim away.


A lively hood ornament.

Dinner was ready for us when we came back to Ft. Lauderdale.  I got some pictures of everyone shacked up there, except for Chris.  He was being a punk.

Bill, my step-mom's dad

Mary, Chris's mom.  She was staying with them while her house was being renovated.

Ken, one of their friends, with Brie.

Brie being hyper.

Pinot with his mustache.

Everglades: Geriatrics



We really wanted to get a fan boat tour of the famous Florida swamplands.  Sadly, most of them require at least a day in advance to make a reservation, and we didn't even think to do a tour until that day.  Instead, we took an Everglades National Park tour of the 10,000 Islands.  There were no gators to be seen, but there were plenty of geriatrics.  In fact, we were the only people there under the age of 60 other than the tour guides.  I quipped to Ayk, “If you added the age of all the people on this boat, it’d be greater than 10,000.”

I have no problems with geriatrics, but there are some disadvantages to senior-friendly tourist attractions.  See, I imagined a boat tour of the Everglades with the wind whipping my hair while some Who song blares in the background.  Hardly our experience.  This boat tour was as slow as their elderly patrons. 

So slow in fact, I literally had to bite my lip during this following incident.  When a soda can fell from a retiree’s lunch bag to the ground and rolled under their feet, it took an excruciating minute for them to retrieve it after I told them it fell.  A minute doesn’t sound like a long time, but I timed myself and it took less than 5 seconds.  Take that, Gramps!

We did see the nose of a manatee.  It's just as exciting as it sounds.








SHARK!!

No, just dolphins.  And believe it or not, they're not much nicer than sharks.

Aw, but they're so cute!





Mine was supposed to be a turtle.  Ayk's is a manatee.