Boggy Creek Airboat Rides and Gatorland

After sleeping like a rock, from Friday’s ziplining adventures at Brandcation, Saturday morning brought a whole new set of exciting activities for our crew.  I am an outdoors girl so all the fun outdoor activities had me enjoying all the wonderful sights and sounds of Florida.

Saturday morning we were off too fly across the water at Boggy Creek Airboat Rides, to literally zip in a different way across water that in a lot of places was only inches deep.   This particular morning was unusually cold for Florida, but we all took it in stride and hopped up on our airboat to experience some more Florida wildlife.  The folks at Boggy Creek Airboat  Rides, graciously provided us all with blankets to bundle up in for our brisk morning ride.  We put on our protective ear muffs and we were off.

I loved being out on the water despite the chilly temperature.  We saw birds of every kind, and even a few wild turkeys up on the banks.  We didn’t get a glimpse of an alligator, because I think it was a little too cold and they must have been hiding elsewhere, but some of the birds were really beautiful.  We sailed across the water and made turns like we were floating on air.  Our boat driver stopped often to point out various things along the way, and it allowed us to take off our protective ear muffs and listen to the nature around us.  It is a great way to experience some of the Florida Everglades.  If it wasn’t so darn cold, I think I could have spent the entire day out there.

After our boat ride through the Everglades, we were off to experience the Florida gator first hand at Gatorland.  I don’t think that I have ever seen so many gators in one location.  There were definitely plenty of them here and I am glad that they were behind fences!

Our guide for the day at Gatorland was Donny and he was nice enough to show us gators from baby on up and even rare leucistic alligators.  We even had the opportunity to feed some of the biggest alligators in the park.  We all took turns tossing them raw meat, and none of them appeared to be missing any meals!

Shortly after we had the chance to see a fun alligator wrestling show, and enjoy lunch within the park.  This was a fun way to spend our afternoon and would be something that I would love to take the boys to on our next visit to Florida.  It offers some hands on experiences with alligators of all sizes,  that you wouldn’t normally get close to, and a chance to learn about them first hand.

A big thank you  to Boggy Creek Airboat Rides and Gatorland who provided us with these experiences and even though the weather was  cold the welcome was warm.