Air Boat Ride

We went by Cape Canaveral too early for me to be taking photos of the lighthouse. A - I wasn't up and B - It was still dark

Biscuit and gravy breakfast special (two fried eggs, sausage gravy and breakfast potatoes

After breakfast I went out on deck to take pictures of the distant Florida coast from the ship -

Another cruise ship near Fort Lauderdale

Coming into port

We docked about 10. I was amused to see that the dock-hands who in St. Kitts pulled the lines by hand - in Ft. Lauderdale hooked them to a pickup trick and pulled them that way.

Monkey's fist on the dock - line looped around the truck hitch

Truck pulls in the line while the dock worker stands by

Taking on fuel (bunkering)

Gate from above

Apparently there were 11 ships docked in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday and they didn't have room for them all. It was a zoo. There was still a

Celebrity ship still in port

Celebrity ship, one of NCLs and another HAL ship loading.

I decided that I'd missed doing an airboat ride in the Everglades when I was there before because they don't do airboat rides in the Park anymore. So I signed up for an excursion.

Excursion driving to the airboat ride

They took us to Sawgrass Recreation Park, which is a private park.

Sawgrass Recreational Park visitor's center

Sawgrass park and airboat bow

Sea of Sawgrass

Sawgrass swamp

We saw a couple of birds

Watchful birds

including an osprey with a fish, and a few fish. The guide demonstrated saw grass,

Showing the saws on sawgrass

and how you could get a cottony gauze type substance out of cattails. We also saw how they were trying to kill the Australian trees that they brought in to suck the water up out of the Everglades. There was one alligator (who appeared quite alert and interested in the boat)

Alligator approaching with a gleam in his eye

and as he swam toward us, the guide started the boat motor up and we airboated back to the dock.

Bob after the cruise walking up between the trash and the tips bins

They had a tame egret who sat on top of the building

Great egret

There used to be a Seminole village there, but it was blown away by hurricanes, and all there is now is a video tape made when the village was there. They also had some animals in cages

They go home every night

Baby cayman

including a breeding pair of alligators,

What big teeth you have

a crocodile, various snakes,

Turtles and Iguanas

a very young Florida panther (7 months old - still had some residual spots)

Florida panther cub playing with a toy in the zoo

and OF ALL THINGS a 3 month old tiger cub.

Tiger

Display of fish and Mirror for sale in the ladies room

When we got back to the ship, I took a photo of the sign that said

"Baggage porters are salaried. Tipping not required"

and also one that said "No Photography or Videotaping Allowed in the Terminal"

No photography

We left the port at dusk. Our steward did a cute towel rabbit for us.

Towel rabbit

We found that the two old ladies had gotten another larger table so another couple (Tom and Sheila) took their places. Sheila was born without forearms, but she managed quite well without them.

Sweet tomato and fresh mozzarella

Grandma's chicken noodle soup

Inland spiky sword fish with black been puree

Berries of the forest crisp with vanilla ice cream