July 15th - Everglades

 This morning we took a "debark tour" which is a combination of transport to the airport and activities meant to normally be done at the end of the cruise (all of the excursions in the home port are setup that way) but we would be brought back to the ship instead of the airport. Most of the group was going home today (suckers). 

The bus brought us to the Everglades where we got a demonstration of gator "wrestling" and explanation about a lot of things to do with gators. The guy doing the demonstration is a professional gator trapper and has been a few shows on TV on for example the Discovery Channel. Jason also got to hold a baby gator that was used to being held and was docile, but it did have a band keeping the jaws closed.






After the little demonstration we went on a large airboat / fan boat out into the everglades for a half hour or so. We ended up getting very close to one gator that swam near the boat - so close we could've touched it if that wasn't dangerous. The boat could go around 30 mph with all of us on it and did that a few times, though we mostly just coasted around.

A few times throughout the day we "Florida Man" sightings. Example below.



We came back to the ship and had a quick lunch before going for a nap. There's a comedian tonight and we might have to have a rematch with the old coin pushing machine.




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