What a day! We started off this morning at about 10:00am and headed to Naples to purchase the D7000. Had to wait until noon for Ritz Camera to open so the boys went one way and the ladies headed the other. We had a meet up time at 12pm at the camera shop and I was in and out within seconds, camera in hand. Craig's mom and Jade were not up to going to the Everglades today so Andrea drove them back to Ft. Myers and me and the boys, Craig, Ken and Dad, headed south towards the Glades. Ken and I had some fun playing with the new camera in the back seat and reading up on some of it's features.
I had one thing in mind and that was I wanted to see some alligators. I have seen them before but not in the Everglades. We stopped on the side of the road and took some pictures of them in the ditch. After a good half hour we headed to Captain Doug's Small Airboat Tours. With another half hour wait at the dock our Captain, Jim was ready to give us a tour. Ken stayed back on land and it was the three of us that were on the boat. We had some other passengers on the way, about 6 brown pelicans hitched a ride for awhile. With our captain feeding them we all had a great view of the throat of the pelicans. We learnt a couple of things about the brown pelican, solid brown ones are under two years old, when their heads turn white they are full grown and when their heads are yellow they are ready to mate.
The waters were very low today, only about a foot deep so there were no gators to be seen. Jim did not disappoint us though, our first stop was to visit a friend of his, Rosie the raccoon or what they call wash bears. She was so sweet and Craig and I got to feed her and I also gave her some bottle water to drink. She was quite thirsty, Jim told us that due to the waters being so low it is very salty so they do not like to drink it. I can image how dangerous it would be too and poor Rosie had a scar on her back from who knows what. Tough neighbourhood.
Not only does our captain feed Rosie he also feeds the pelicans and the fish on his travels. He was throwing dog biscuits into the water and the catfish were coming up to the surface to fetch them. From there he turned it up a notch and man can those airboats fly, remember the water is only about a foot deep. His next stop for us was to visit some more friends, a mom raccoon and two of her babies or should I say teenagers. So he fed and watered them along with a raven and off we went back to the dock. We had a blast on the tour and would do it again in a heartbeat.
From there we headed to Clyde Butcher's Big Cypress Gallery. What an amazing photographer! If you get a chance here is his website http://www.clydebutcher.com If you like Ansel Adams you will love Clyde Butcher. We purchased one of his many table top books and a couple of little nick nacks. You can head out the back door of the gallery for a short walk through the woods and then back to the parking lot. The gallery is in the Everglades and there is a swamp area right beside the building and yes it has gators in it. We walked across the highway to shoot some pictures of birds and we came across a massive alligator, picture to follow. The curators, a husband and wife team, were very knowledgeable not only about Clyde but also the Everglades and they were just as curious with our life in the Arctic. Craig and I talked to them for so long we closed the place down.
We got home just in time for a wonderful roast dinner that mom and Andrea prepared. All in all a great day with the boys.
There are many pictures today, all were shot with the new Nikon.
Talk soon!
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