Waycross, Georgia

So after staying the night in Waycross, we went to the Okeefenokee Swamp Park. At first I was a little skeptical and wasn't that excited, but it ended up being a really cool place.

As we pulled up, the first of many alligators greeted us right by the parking lot. That grey thing below my arm is it. As I was taking this, my dad was yelling at me. He thought I was going to be eaten.

Okefenokee Park would be better described as a preserve. With the exception of a few animals, everything is living in it's natural habitat and roams freely. They have a few thousand acres in this park, and several more thousand acres of swamp surrounding them.

This was the only are where the alligators are in an enclosed area. I'm assuming they keep these here so that everyone can get to see a gator, in case the other residents aren't out wandering around.

Lesson one of this day: My dad is a scaredy cat when it comes to alligators. He didn't even want us to get near the railing.

They were napping.

Look at how cute he is!

This one is resting in a nice cool place under the bridge. He's one of the many alligators roaming freely. My mom took this from the walking path, so you can see how close he is to where everyone is walking.

Another napping alligator. Apparently a lot of (stupid) visitors don't think the alligators are real, and so they get really close to take pictures with them. Including one lady who put her 2 year old right next to one, and then wouldn't believe the staff member when he yelled at her to move the child. She thought he was playing a joke on her, and wouldn't believe it was real.

Posing with another napping alligator

This is me impersonating an alligator. Jimmy thinks it's funny. Andrew obviously doesn't. And because he was so annoyed, Andrew wouldn't hold on to me. So I fell to the floor.

Thanks Andrew.

Doing out Alligator faces! My dad doesn't quite understand how it's done. The hands are the alligator mouth, so it goes in front of your own mouth. Apparently that was really difficult to understand.

Trying to show him how it's done. It didn't work.

Daily photoshoot of the little guy!

"I'm so embarrassed. Stop taking my picture. I'm just going to sit here and flex my muscles until you stop taking my picture...."

Awww look at how cute he is.

This is Suzie. She is the oldest female alligator in the park. And she likes to hang out where the boat tours leave from.

Boat tour. It was really cool.

Our guide. He was awesome! He grew up next door to the swamp, and most of his family worked there. So he knows a ton about the area, and knows most of the animals by name.

My mom's tats.

If you can see, at the end of this pathway is a huge tower. My legs are still angry about the fact that I climbed to the top of it.

We were the only 5 people on the boat. Family picture!

This is the view from the very tippy-top of the tower.

My dad really doesn't like heights. So he held onto the center railing the whole time. In the background, Andrew is ringing the bell so everyone knew that we made it to the top. Quite an accomplishment!

Another view from the top.

There are the stairs down. The green speck at the bottom is a picnic table. I'm not even kidding when I say that I can barely walk now. My calfs (Calfs? Calves? as in my legs, not a baby cow) are protesting the climb I forced them to do. Ugh.

Walking back to the boat

Cute baby alligator! It's actually about 2 years old.

My dad overcoming his fear, and petting the cute little alligator.

Aren't they adorable???

I posted all of these because Andrew's faces are awesome.

River otter! This little thing is the cutest animal EVER!

One of my squirrel friends. They were more interested in the otter feed we bought than the otter was.

Feeding the squirrels

And then it happened. Lesson number 2 of the day. Don't feed squirrels out of your hand. They can't tell the difference between food and fingers. So it bit me. Now, I don't know what got into me. I am usually so much smarter than this. But it was just so cute! I guess I just couldn't resist that little face. The good news is that it didn't break the skin, so I don't think I'm going to get rabies. Most likely. This must have been taken right before he bit me, because I'm not screaming yet. Haha.

Jimmy's excited for the train ride!

My mom got to spend some time with these chickens.

Dragonfly on my mom's arm

It was super-duper hot. So Andrew decided to come up with his own fashion to try and beat the heat.

And did I mention that it is Yellow fly season? Yes, they are the devil in the form of a fly. They bite and then make you bleed. And these 3 spots on my cankle are where the bit me. Darn flies. (It is zoomed in quite a bit. My ankles aren't quite that big).

And so then we started out on the road again, towards Savannah. Which will be the next set of pictures....

Jenn