Watch out! This baby gator could bite a finger off!

Today we made our way over to the Gulf coast and then inland to Orlando.  The day began with another stop in the Everglades.  We drove into the northern section of the park, and stopped at the Shark Valley visitor center.  We walked part of the tram tour road, and saw a variety of alligators and birds – little blue herons, more annhingas (and babies!), a baby gator, a Limpkin, and a white ibis.  At some point, we realized we had no idea how long the road was, and that we were so excited about seeing more gators and birds that we left the water in the car, so we retraced our steps.  This was a fortunate decision, because at this time Tony spotted a baby gator on a rock a foot or two off the path.

Palm trees are the norm in Florida.

After our hike through the Everglades, we continued our drive to the Gulf and Naples, FL.  We reached Naples around lunchtime, and soon remembered that we dislike large cities with lots of traffic.  However, we did stop to eat at Bravo!’s, and enjoyed our food and chance to relax.

This heron actually stayed put until the sun went down.

Following an enjoyable lunch, we continued our drive toward Sanibel Island.  We made the mistake of driving through Fort Meyer’s Beach… an extra 30 minutes was added to our trip due a two-lane road with a traffic cop but no traffic light.  Anyone remember the opening scene to Office Space?  Kind of like that, in miniature.  However, we eventually made it through the traffic, up the bridge, and onto Sanibel Island.  This island was pretty crowded (it was maybe an hour before sunset), so we continued driving to the end of the island.  We found a small beach, parked our car, and wandered out to enjoy the sunset.  There were about 2 dozen other people on the beach, as well as a very tall great blue heron.  We watched the sunset; the heron also watched the sunset with us.

Then, we began our trek to Orlando.