Florida: Land of the gators

Oh, summer... it seems you have quickly turned to fall overnight. Which is why Luke and I took our last chance to feel the sun on our backs before winter rears its snowy, freezing head.

Luke and I hopped a plane to Florida last weekend for a quick "last hurah!" of summer. We headed to Palm Beach to enjoy the sun, sand and seafood. We stayed in a great resort right on the ocean, in which Luke spent most of his time jumping waves, while I watched to make sure he didn't get pulled under or stung by a passing jellyfish (he had some close encounters). And if you know us, you know we LOVE seafood. We made sure to get our fix of mussels, oysters, fish, you name it, each night -- well, except for one, which we caved for a Japanese steakhouse that was sounding very delicious at the time.

But, we had a great time and I am so thankful for the time to make memories together (and thankful to my parents for letting us use their timeshare)! Here are some photos from our trip.

Luke ordered a "whole snapper." Little did he know, that's exactly what he was going to get. To eat it, he had to pull the meat off the fish while steering clear of the tail and eyes.

This is the "after" shot.

The one thing Luke wanted to do on our trip was see alligators. Well, more specifically, wrestle alligators -- so we got as close to that as we could. We drove down to Fort Lauderdale and went on an airboat tour of the Everglades and saw some alligators swimming. It was so cool!

Can you see it there in the water?

Waiting for the boat ride...

Wahoo!!

Then we got to watch someone ELSE wrestle alligators. This guy got his thumb bit off by an alligator about six years ago. They reattached it, but he doesn't have any feeling in it anymore. Apparently, they get their alligators from trappers who collect "public nuisance" gators that make their way into the city. This group buys the gators so they aren't killed for their skins.

I don't know if you can see this guy - but he's barefoot. No big deal, right?

And then he took our camera into the cage with this big guy -- 12 feet to be exact -- and snapped a photo for us. I'm glad he didn't make us go in there...

We also spent lots of time on the beach. Here's Luke checking out the waves.

We couldn't have asked for a better trip!