Anxiety Over a Snack; Having One and Being One

Sandy and I went back into the wild yesterday. A trip to Everglades National Park hopefully makes for an entertaining and scenic post: 

Open road in Redland, Florida

We took the dark red road in the center of the map (the only road in this area).

Everglades National Park visitors center.

Beware of panthers crossing.

Vultures attacking their own reflections at the parking lot for the Royal Palm Trail. If there's anything you learn from this story, it's that vultures hurt cars and prefer the shade. You should leave your car far, far away and in the sun. Once our car was safe, we had to decide on a path for getting to the visitors center. The options were a) run through bee infested grass or b) run underneath vulture infested tree branches. We went with the vultures. I hate bees.

This decision was easy. The entrance to Gumbo Limbo was flooded with vultures flying around making barking sounds.

Royal Palm Trail visitors center

Where we heard the first alligator snort.

Taken right around the time we got attacked by wild and furious swamp flies.

First alligator sighting. I was filming the water rippling and trying to capture some wild sounds when I spotted him (for the purposes of this post, the gator is a male). Sandy was turned the other way, looking at an apple palm. Still filming, I turn to look at Sandy and whisper-yell, "Sandy, there's an alligator," as I point at him floating toward us. 

Just shy of the boardwalk that we're standing on.

Coming out from under it and measuring at least 9ft long.

Some underwater life.

Alligators resting in the shade. Another situation where a whisper-yell seemed like the best option for us as they were laying inches from our feet. This time it was Sandy who my smacked my arm and said something like "Oh no no no, ha ha ha, no. They are right there."

Thought this sign would help give context for the previous two.

As we're walking back to the entrance, Sandy warned a group of Asian tourists about the alligators under the boardwalk. Seconds later, you hear the woman scream and a splash. We laughed and ran through the swamp fly area so we wouldn't get attacked again. Once we were past the threshold, I took out my snack and asked Sandy if she thought I would get attacked by a bird wanting my food. This is where the title of this post was born.

Entering Mahogany Hammock Trail.

Attacked by swamp flies once again, we decided to run back and come back to the wild during the dry season (winter).

On our way out of Redland, we decided to stop in at Robert is Here. Family owned and operated for 60 years, the stand began as a vacant corner with a young boy selling his father's crop. Look it up. Highly recommend the strawberry key lime shake and local sauces/honeys/jams/juices/pies/you name it.