Gatorland in Orlando

Gatorland is one of those old Florida attractions that always seemed to be kind of sleazy, but I always wanted to go there. When I was a kid and we passed places like this, we begged Mom and Dad to stop. While we were in Orlando the first week of April, Tom asked if I wanted to see it.

It was so much fun. It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for spending the day outside. A was in school, but I bet B2 would have loved it. We should have taken him. A had been there on a school field trip. Following are many photos taken there.


Ferns in the cypress swamp




Bromeliad in bloom















Nesting bird




I took so many bird and gator photos that most people can't tell 'em apart. But with a digital camera, it's so easy to take 100 photos to get one or two that are really good. If the only one I take is a little blurry, then it's ruined for me.

Of course, I do have a little problem with deleting the photos that I don't use, especially when they're nice and clear and especially if there are animals or family members in them. Or if they're a little fuzzy and have family members in them. Or......if they exist.

So I have thousands and thousands of digital photos from the last few years. Many are on cds, many are on a backup hard drive, and a bunch of them are on a digital portable photobank drive.

And being a little obsessive-compulsive, I have to travel (everywhere) with extra batteries (lots of extra batteries, because I use AAs instead of rechargables) and they're heavy little things. I also carry the photobank; it's a 40-gig hard drive, smaller than a paperback book, but heavy. I just have to have it along in case I use up all the space on the memory cards, and it's smaller and more convenient than carrying around a laptop. Then there's the camera, which is fairly small but still bulky and heavy enough. And the camera cord, and five extra memory sticks, and I have to be really careful with these items or they'll be ruined.

No wonder my shoulder hurts.