Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina
Life is short. Live it well.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2008
Gatorland.........part 2! 
After the train ride, we decided to take in a show. On our way to the seating area, we passed by the kids waterpark. I thought it was a great idea for those coming on summer trips, and it looked like a ton of fun. The clouds had started to roll in by this point in the morning, so there was no one using the water play area at this particular time, but I can see it being a popular place on very warm days.
We also took a brief look at the animals in the petting zoo. Steve grew up on a farm, Jake is a 17-year-old city boy, and well.....there was a lot of animal poo in places (I have an aversion to animal poo......sorry bout that, its a hang up of mine)........so this area of the park didnt hold a whole lot of appeal for us. For smaller kiddos, it would be great fun, but we took a pass.
There were two shows set to run at the same time. Jake picked the Gator Wrestling, so away we went. Steve used his grunt package inclusion to sit himself on a big ol gator prior to the show. When he saw Steve coming, Wrestler Tim joked that he might need a break to bring out a bigger gator. What a meanie!!
Jake opted to take a pass on sitting his fanny on said gator. I told him he was chicken. He said he was afraid hed taste like chicken !! He asked me why I wasnt taking my turn on the gators back, and I assured him that some responsible person needed to hold my very delicate camera. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.
The wrestling show was awesome. So entertaining, and darn funny at the same time. First, Wrestler Tim let a child pick a gator for him to wrestle out of the pool surrounding the ring. Then we got to watch him pull it out of the water by the tail.
Once on the sand, he dragged it to the center......and let me tell ya, it was mad. Totally not impressed.
Then he got on its back, and grabbed its mouth with his hands. Apparently Tim didnt feel like being eaten that particular day. This was a tougher feat than it looks from this picture. After the gator nearly succeeded in trying to chomp him a few times, Tim announced I think I peed a little. Yep, so did we.
Then, because hes a guy, he had to do a little showing off. Typical!!!
Sitting on his back, he taught us all sorts of stuff about gators. Did you know you can poke their eyes down into their heads, and they will just pop right back out again? Its gross, but its true. He demonstrated it for us. Ick.
He also showed us all sorts of things about the strength of their jaws. And to prove his point, he held that big, snappy mouth open with his chin. I think my heart stopped for a few minutes.
He ended the show by flipping that big ol gator on its back, and showing us how to put a gator to sleep. You know, just in case you need to do that sometime.
After the show, we wandered leisurely around some more, taking lots of photos and just enjoying the park. We had fun feeding the gators the gator food (we each got a nice big bunch of wieners with our grunt package), and trying to avoid feeding the darn birds that are way quicker than those lazy gators.
Arriving at 10, we left about 1 pm. This is a GREAT park for a 2-3 hour visit, with lots to see and do. And a very affordable add-on to a vacation as well, with regular admission prices in the $20 range for adults. We wanted to leave ourselves enough time to grab lunch and then head to our next attraction of the day.............Wild Willys Airboats in St. Cloud.
But speaking of clouds.......would our afternoon plans get rained out? Its starting to get a little dark outside!
After the train ride, we decided to take in a show. On our way to the seating area, we passed by the kids waterpark. I thought it was a great idea for those coming on summer trips, and it looked like a ton of fun. The clouds had started to roll in by this point in the morning, so there was no one using the water play area at this particular time, but I can see it being a popular place on very warm days.
We also took a brief look at the animals in the petting zoo. Steve grew up on a farm, Jake is a 17-year-old city boy, and well.....there was a lot of animal poo in places (I have an aversion to animal poo......sorry bout that, its a hang up of mine)........so this area of the park didnt hold a whole lot of appeal for us. For smaller kiddos, it would be great fun, but we took a pass.
There were two shows set to run at the same time. Jake picked the Gator Wrestling, so away we went. Steve used his grunt package inclusion to sit himself on a big ol gator prior to the show. When he saw Steve coming, Wrestler Tim joked that he might need a break to bring out a bigger gator. What a meanie!!
Jake opted to take a pass on sitting his fanny on said gator. I told him he was chicken. He said he was afraid hed taste like chicken !! He asked me why I wasnt taking my turn on the gators back, and I assured him that some responsible person needed to hold my very delicate camera. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.
The wrestling show was awesome. So entertaining, and darn funny at the same time. First, Wrestler Tim let a child pick a gator for him to wrestle out of the pool surrounding the ring. Then we got to watch him pull it out of the water by the tail.
Once on the sand, he dragged it to the center......and let me tell ya, it was mad. Totally not impressed.
Then he got on its back, and grabbed its mouth with his hands. Apparently Tim didnt feel like being eaten that particular day. This was a tougher feat than it looks from this picture. After the gator nearly succeeded in trying to chomp him a few times, Tim announced I think I peed a little. Yep, so did we.
Then, because hes a guy, he had to do a little showing off. Typical!!!
Sitting on his back, he taught us all sorts of stuff about gators. Did you know you can poke their eyes down into their heads, and they will just pop right back out again? Its gross, but its true. He demonstrated it for us. Ick.
He also showed us all sorts of things about the strength of their jaws. And to prove his point, he held that big, snappy mouth open with his chin. I think my heart stopped for a few minutes.
He ended the show by flipping that big ol gator on its back, and showing us how to put a gator to sleep. You know, just in case you need to do that sometime.
After the show, we wandered leisurely around some more, taking lots of photos and just enjoying the park. We had fun feeding the gators the gator food (we each got a nice big bunch of wieners with our grunt package), and trying to avoid feeding the darn birds that are way quicker than those lazy gators.
Arriving at 10, we left about 1 pm. This is a GREAT park for a 2-3 hour visit, with lots to see and do. And a very affordable add-on to a vacation as well, with regular admission prices in the $20 range for adults. We wanted to leave ourselves enough time to grab lunch and then head to our next attraction of the day.............Wild Willys Airboats in St. Cloud.
But speaking of clouds.......would our afternoon plans get rained out? Its starting to get a little dark outside!
". So I explained it to him. And he gave me that blank look and said "Geez Mom, no wonder my friends think you are weird!!". 
.
.
..........Wild Willy's Airboats. And more gators! 
)
. It really sucks to be sick when you're on holidays. I am sooooo grateful that ours hit us all at once and was pretty short lived. It could have been so much worse. 
