I had been thinking about a trip to a Colorado Gator farm for years with Chase that offered a gator wrestling class for those who are 18 or older. Last fall when Chase turned 18 I asked him if he wanted to go to Colorado soon or wait until spring to go and take the class. Chase opted for a spring trip to the gator farm. When I returned to the Colorado Gators website this spring the page about the gator wrestling class was gone. I called them up and the person with whom I spoke confirmed that they no longer offered the gator wrestling class.
With this information, I was not sure it was worth an 8 hour drive to see a bunch of gators and other exotic animals. Rachel encouraged me to take this opportunity to head to the gator capital of the world and visit Florida for a few days with Chase and just do it right.
After some visits to websites to try and gather some additional information, we decided to go for it. We would fly into and out of Fort Lauderdale with a few days' wildlife-viewing in between.
We flew out of SLC on a Tuesday morning with an 8:00am flight that took us through Chicago. I took the time to tell Chase about how the airport we were going through was the largest in the United States. When we got there, the gate our next flight was departing from was about 100 yards from the gate we arrived at. So much for a huge airport. We grabbed some quick food between flights and hopped on the plane to Florida. This flight was different from the one from SLC to Chicago. This one was more full, had more kids and a definite vacation vibe to it. It also had noisy kids. I am getting old. Chase used noise-cancelling headphones to play with his Switch on both flights. The combined 5 hours cruised by for him. I reread Winterdance on the way down and enjoyed every minute.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale at about 5:00pm and had to take a shuttle to the rental car pick up area. When we arrived, we learned that some rental car companies were another shuttle ride that is off site from the airport. Our rental car company was one of those. After a long wait when it seemed that all other off-site company shuttles had already come twice or more, our shuttle came and took us to a semi-industrial post-apocalyptic looking neighborhood where we picked up our car from a place where Chase declared, “I do not trust those people at all.”
I thought that I had reserved a room in a hotel in Homestead, FL which is about 75 minutes or so south of Fort Lauderdale, so we just put Homestead in the GPS and headed south. As we got closer to Homestead, I told Chase that we should probably put in the Hotel address so we could go straight to the hotel. We pulled off of the turnpike and after putting in the hotel address, I realized that the hotel I got was not in Homestead at all. We were about 10 minutes from Homestead and our hotel was already about 15 minutes behind us. Oops. We turned around and headed back north and proceeded to miss our exit to get to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel by about 8:00pm or so. It was quite the long travel day. We ended up getting dinner at a food truck about a half mile from our hotel called Okay Burger. It was super good and just what we needed after a long day of travel. We sat outside and ate our food at temporary tables set up in strip-mall parking lot. The air was warm and the food was fantastic. It was a good end to a long and tiring day.
We got up pretty early on Wednesday (by Chase standards anyway) and enjoyed a remarkably bland breakfast at the hotel. We had a 12:30 pm appointment at the Dolphin Rescue Center on Marathon Key and according to google maps, the drive was about 1 hour and 45 minutes. We gave ourselves about an extra half hour or 45 minutes to get there and headed south. Once we made it through Homestead, it felt as though we had left civilization. There was just a lot of flat wasteland looking area that we crossed before we arrived in the keys. We were both surprised at how much dry and barren area there appeared to be on the way to the keys. We later learned that we were just coming to the end of the dry season so that may explain why things looked so dry in places. Make no mistake, there was a lot of water and swampy areas, but in between those there was also plenty of brown and dying vegetation. We expected everything to be lush and green and it just was not what we expected. We were headed to Grassy Key which is about halfway from the beginning of the keys to Key West which is the last key. There were plenty of spectacular views of turquoise water on our way down but it was also surprising how much of the drive could have been many miles from water and we would not have known it.
We arrived at the Dolphin Rescue Center only a few minutes before Chase’s scheduled time since we were slowed by road work on our way down. Once we checked in, we headed out to the docks. There are two main areas: front docks and back docks. When we arrived, the front docks were alive with activity. There were 30-40 people watching a dolphin presentation and several groups of people in the water at several docks. There were a pair of dolphins for each dock and they were interacting with people in the water. We watched this for a few minutes but then Chase wanted to head to the back docs. The back docs were deserted at that time which looked great to me. We headed back and stopped at the last pool that appeared to have about 5 dolphins in it. There were no trainers and only the two of us in the area. I do not know if the dolphins saw us walk up and decided to show off, or if they were just playing regardless of the two-person audience, but they started cruising around the pool and jumping and slapping tails against the water. It was super cool and pretty soon a small group had gathered to watch. After a few minutes they were done and we made our way back to the front docks to wait for Chase’s time in the water to begin.
Chase was put into a group of 7 other people who were also doing the dolphin encounter. They split the group in half and 4 went to one side of the small dock and the remaining 4 to the opposite side. There was a trainer and a photographer on the doc. The 8 participants were in about waist-deep (for Chase anyway) water. The 8 participants took turns interacting with the dolphins in various ways. One of the interactions was a kiss. Chase joked that when he got home he could tease Romney by saying that he had kissed a dolphin before she had kissed a human. Not sure if he ever said that when he got home. Chase’s time in the water lasted about 30 minutes and included getting a quick pull around the pool by hanging onto the dorsal fins on his two dolphins while they cruised around the pool. Chase was able to get a pretty good sunburn in his 30 minutes in the water.
We hung out for a little while longer after the encounter was over and then Chase indulged my desire to go to a public beach. We drove 9 additional miles down the keys to a public beach. We put our feet in the water. I took pictures of Chase. We looked for life in small tidal pools. We wondered how people spend entire vacations at beaches. We were there for 12 minutes and then headed back north in search of food.
At the recommendation of an employee of the Dolphin Rescue Center, we ended up at a restaurant that is next door to the Dolphin encounter we had an hour or so earlier. It was a local place with covered outdoor seating and a nice vibe. We ordered gator bites for an appetizer. There was quite a variety in how they tasted, some could have been chicken, but some had a rather gamey taste to them. We both wondered if most of the gator bites were in fact chicken or if some parts of the gator have a different flavor to them. By the time we finished lunch it was almost 5pm. So I guess it was more dinner than lunch. After the meal, we headed north.
I had read an article online about what to do in the Everglades that included how much the author loved a short hike called the Anhinga Trail. I thought it would be cool to be out in the park at sundown and the Anhinga Trail seemed like a good place to try and do that. Chase agreed so rather than heading back to the hotel, we took a detour to the Homestead entrance to the Everglades. We stopped at the Ernest F. Coe visitor center to take a quick look around. It was closed, so it was a quick look indeed. The drive from the visitor center to the trail head is only 5-10 minutes and we arrived to a mostly empty parking lot. The trail starts off with a 5-10 foot wide paved path that runs next to and parallel with a slough. It took Chase only a couple of minutes to spot the first gator in the wild. We also walked right past a soft-shelled turtle who appeared to be burying eggs in a nest right by the trail. Most of the trail was a raised boardwalk that took us through thick brush with swampy bottom to areas of open swamp with lily-covered water. The water was alive with many fish and turtles. We watched the sun set from this part of the trail. There were just a few other people there and with the exception of one noisy couple of young girls, there seemed to be a hushed reverence over the area. Chase and I found ourselves whispering when we spoke so as not to disturb the moment as did most of the other people who were there. The detour was everything I hoped for. Quiet and peaceful with an opportunity to see and feel a part of the environment. When it started getting dark, we packed it up and headed back to the hotel. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 9:00pm. Once there, we did not last long.
The next day started slowly. We had prepaid tickets for an airboat tour in the Shark Valley area of the Everglades, but the tours ran about every 20 minutes or so and the tickets were good for any time. I asked Chase when he wanted to get up and get going and he said he wanted to sleep. So sleep he did. I got up at what was normal time and showered and went down to the main floor and grabbed breakfast and did some catching up on email from work while Chase slept. I think it was about 10:00 or 10:30 when I finally got him out of bed. He showered and got ready, and we left the hotel. Breakfast was no longer being served when we headed out so food would have to wait for Chase. We headed to the Shark Valley area of the Everglades and found the place where we had pre-purchased tickets. They could not find our ticket reservation, so I had to buy new tickets for our tour. Later, as I was on the air boat it hit me that the tickets would have been in Rachel’s name and I was able to the get the original ticket cost refunded.
The air boat ride started down a channel that was as much a nature tour as anything. We saw a few gators and some other wildlife. We putted down the channel with the boat operator idling the boat just enough to get us moving and then cutting the motor so we could hear him speak for a minute or two. He would then start the boat again and get us moving then cut the engine and talk. This went on for a few minutes until we got out of the channel and more out into the open grassy area. Once out in the open, he asked everyone to put their earplugs in and we took off. We cruised at probably about 15-25 mph through open grassy swamps. After just a few minutes of cruising at higher speeds we slowed back down, and the tour turned more back into a wildlife tour. We saw a few more gators and birds on our way back to where the tour started.
The ticket price also included a gator show in a pavilion. We caught the next show and sat on the front row. The show consisted mostly of a guy holding animals and telling us about them. We learned about King snakes, of course gators, but he also had an American crocodile. It was fun. We sat on the first row and next to a woman who reached out and tried to touch the snout of the gator in the show. The man presenting had to pull the gator back to keep her from touching. He then stated that at that moment we were witnessing natural selection before our very eyes.
We were able to grab lunch at the same place and by the time we got there it was about 2:00pm. We ate and then headed to the Shark Valley visitor center. As it happened, we were able to get the last two tickets for the Shark Valley Tram tour that was starting in about 10-15 minutes.
The Shark Valley Tram tour takes a 2-3 covered-car tram on a roughly 15-mile tour from the north end of the park into the middle of the park. The tour ends with a 15-minute stop at an overlook. The first half of the tram tour takes a winding road to the lookout tower that focused on the ecology of the area and the history of the park. Chase and I both found it interesting. The lookout tower was built in the 1960’s and smacked of post-apocalyptic concrete architecture. We both liked it. The views were spectacular. We were only elevated about 30-40 feet above the ground, but this elevation allowed us to see for miles. Added to the view was the fact that there were rain showers in the distance, and it added up for a great experience. After a few minutes taking in the views, we wandered out for a short walk on a trail adjacent to the lookout tower. This was super short as the tram was just a couple of minutes from leaving and we didn’t want to walk the 7 miles back to the visitor center.
The ride back to the visitor center takes a road that is completely straight for 7 miles. It was built by a petroleum company in the 1940’s as a way to access that area for oil exploration. The road has a slough directly next to it for the entire length, so this trip back was more about wildlife and less about ecology. We saw plenty of gators, turtles, birds and the tram even stopped so everyone could look at a crawdad that was in the middle of the road. Chase and I were less than impressed by the crawdad. Been there, done that. One our way back to the visitor center the rainstorms that we observed from the lookout tower caught up to us. We were rained on pretty hard for a few minutes and even though the tram was covered, enough came in sideways that we were pretty wet by the time the rain stopped.
We arrived back at the visitor center about 5pm or so. The place was pretty empty at that point. We looked around at displays for a few minutes and then started to walk back down the road we had just come from. We were in no hurry and there was just so much life down in the slough. We walked past a cute little gator about 18 inches long who was hanging out at the water’s edge. There were also some large birds with their wings outstretched, drying themselves in the sun. We didn’t go too far down the road before turning around and heading back to the car. Once in the car, we headed back to the hotel to call it a day. We ended up getting dinner from a food truck just down the street from our hotel that evening. Chicken and waffles. It was basically a sweet waffle cone with diced chicken in sauce. Mine was super good and I think Chase liked his as well. Once the chicken and waffles were gone, I turned on the TV and we ended up watching the end of Independence Day. The thing that really drew us in was the character played by Jeff Goldblum. We are big Jeff Goldblum fans at our house starting with his portrayal of Dr. Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park and continuing to this day, so the chance to watch this classic character was fun for both of us. So, we ended up staying up later than we should have, but we had stomachs full of good food and Jeff Goldblum on the TV – what else were we supposed to do?
The next day included the high point of the trip: A gator tour with Chris Gillett from Gatorboys fame. The appointment was for 10:30am and we were to meet at Everglades outpost wildlife sanctuary in Homestead. We met Chris and he took us back to the pond where the gator swim takes place. He gave us a pretty long talk that really could have been summarized in one sentence: Don’t be stupid! I get that he had to be specific about a lot of things, and many specific rules came from someone in the past being stupid. The weather this day was breezy and cool - much cooler than the previous two days we were there. Chase did not really care. There was another person there as well to do the gator swim. Chase went first and did great. I took some pictures with my cell phone from above, and Chase had our waterproof camera in the water with him and Chris had his big rig in the water taking photos as well. Chase stayed in for the full 30 minutes even though the water was quite cold and had a great time. Chris took some super cool pictures of him as well.
We stayed while the other person did their gator swim and took some pictures with Chris and talked for a few minutes. While we were talking a couple of gators started to fight. Chris very casually walked over and broke up the fight which involved “gator wrestling” one of the gators and putting him into the pond.
After we left the wildlife sanctuary, we headed just a few miles down the road and found lunch at a local gator-themed road-side type restaurant. The food was fine, and it also killed time until our next appointment back at the wildlife sanctuary.
Our next appointment was a “behind the scenes” tour of the place we had just been. The sanctuary has a good variety of animals. Many of the gators there were born there, and they have a lot of gators, but most of the other animals were previously private people’s pets that they could no longer care for and were given to the sanctuary. We met and fed a good number of animals including a Florida panther, a tiger, wolves, a black bear, and others. With some of the less carnivorous animals, we were able to go inside their enclosures and pet them and hand feed them. My favorite was probably the lemur. Like many of the other animals, the lemur was formerly the pet of a private person. This person wanted an exotic pet but did not want the possible danger that comes with exotic pets, so she had all of the lemur’s teeth removed. It was super sad. The lemur loved bananas and that is what we fed him. The tour lasted about an hour or so. After that, we started working on everything that needed to happen for us to get on a plane the next morning.
Our flight left at 7:00am so we needed to be to the airport by about 6:00am just in case security took longer than expected. With this in mind we worked backwards to determine what needed to happen. Luckily, I had made a mistake when booking the hotel and was one day short. This turned out to be a blessing. If we had tried to stay in our same hotel we would have needed to get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and would have had several chances for things to go wrong. We would have needed to get up, drive an hour or so, drop off our rental car off site and get an uber and get to the airport by 6:00am. Instead, we got a hotel room 5 minutes from the hotel that has a shuttle that runs every 30 minutes 24 hours a day.
Chase never mentioned this to me, but did mention to at least Rachel and his seminary teacher as well, that he was quite anxious about not having a hotel room reserved for our last night when we figured out that I had not reserved the room for enough nights when planning the trip. With how things turned out, it was a huge blessing that I had made a mistake in my original hotel room reservation. Chase mentioned that he felt that this blessing helped him feel Heavenly Father’s awareness of us and was a spiritual experience for him.
To get things ready to leave, we headed north and once in the area of the rental car company, we topped of the rental car with gas. We then dropped of the car at the rental place and then worked on an uber. I had not ubered in years, so it took a few tries to get the payment set up with the app, but it only took 5 minutes to get it figured out. We then took an uber to our new hotel for the night and called it a day. There were restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, and I am sure Chase was hungry, but he said that it was just not worth the hassle to leave the hotel for food. I thought that I was the only one who felt that way when staying in hotels.
The next morning, we headed down to the lobby to wait for the shuttle and with about 10 other people took the short ride to the airport. Once at the airport, nothing out of the ordinary, we had plenty of time to get our flight and other than the fact that we had first class tickets and enjoyed larger seat, lots of overhead bag space and better snacks on the flight, it was just like any other flight. We connected through Dallas and I was reminded of the “wonderful” times I had there sleeping on the floor waiting for a plane when my flight was delayed coming from South Carolina and I missed my connecting flight. No such drama in Dallas this time. We had plenty of time to get to our flight and once again enjoyed flying first class.
Chase is a tough kid for me to read. He keeps things pretty close. I really wanted him to have a great spring break trip after a senior year like few could have imagined just a year earlier. He was pretty even the whole time but admitted that he was uneasy with being out and about in Florida and that he “trusted the animals in the Everglades more than he trusted the people outside the Everglades.” I feel like I gained some insight into the level of anxiety he deals with in his life while on this trip and made some memories that we can look back on for many years to come. I am happy that when given the opportunity to pay for professional photos of an event that we did.
I had a wonderful time just spending time with Chase and being in a new and interesting place. I think Chase had a good time seeing so many animals that he has loved for so long in natural environments. Hopefully this week will be remembered by Chase for the rest of his life as a good week and that he will understand the genesis behind the trip was a love for him by both of his parents.
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