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The hotel room we have isn’t bad at all.

Yes, we’ve seen bugs, but it is only $30 a night and we’ve found more bugs in rooms twice the cost, so that isn’t all that bad. And if I’ve got the choice between a few bugs and a rabid raccoon , I vote bugs.

Our room doesn’t get a really great view.

But, it is right behind a nice Chinese place where we ate last year.

And we do get palm trees.

Although the side without the parking lot gets a lot more trees and bushes.

We didn’t really sleep as late as we had planned, but did go off to buy breakfast stuff and relax for a while.

I’ve got to say, there is something about the sprawl of all the stuff here in Orlando that I don’t react well with.

I’m not sure why, but I’m happy to get out of the crowded parts of town.

So, off to our cousin’s new house. We were surprised by the local birds.

It was not hard to realize this was the house where my family lived.

For reasons not understood, the camera decided to switch to a limited color mode and take pictures of the house as if it was 40+ years ago.

I assure you that the house is very nice and far more colorful then that photo would suggest. Thomas put in the floors all by himself and it looks great. He was in the process of doing some ceiling work when we showed up. We did manage to lure him and his sister out to lunch with us.

My wife took our picture as we posed by the town’s big Christmas tree.

After lunch I offered to help Thomas put up and fold down ladder in his attic. This consisted of my walling him up in the ceiling until he could get the ladder attached to make his escape.

There didn’t seem to be a lot of concern that I had walled my cousin up in the ceiling.

The good news is that he got the stairs attached and made his way out.

Then, we decided to set off on alligator quest.
Five years ago when we were in South Carolina there seemed to be alligators everywhere. We saw them at the shopping mall, in the lake behind

gilden’s house, and everywhere we went. When we got back home, there was one found in the town next to ours, which is hundreds of miles north of their normal habitat

Everyone we know who lives in Florida tells us there are even more common here. They tell us they see them all the time. My wife’s aunt says she couldn’t get out her back door because an alligator decided to lean up against it while sunning.
But, we’ve never seen one in the wild in Florida. Ever.

So,

mariness decided (again) to help us see one in the wild.

She had heard that Lake Griffin state park had the swimming shut down because of too many alligators. (I guess they stampede if scared, so you can’t let too many get together.) So, we decided to set off to see.
We drove the 40 or so minutes there, found the park and drove up to the gate.
A park ranger came out of his shed and up to our car.

“What do you want here?” he asked me in a tone to suggest we should not wasting his time.
“We’d like to come in and look around the park,” I said.
“No, you don’t,” he said. “We’re a camp site. If you’re not camping here or putting a boat in the water there isn’t anything for you to see.
“If it was warmer, the picnic area would be open, but it’s too cold.
“I’ll let you drive in so you can see if there is nothing worth seeing, but stay on the loop road and come right back.”
So we drove in (without paying our $5) and followed the loop road. You could see a canal that ran out to the lake with some boats in it and a pretty clear path that ran along it. But, we decided we weren’t wanted at that park and followed the road back and left.

But

mariness knew of another state park lake not too far away, so we set off.

On the way we passed what was the biggest tourist attraction back before the theme parks where built. That’s right, the Citrus Tower!

We did not stop and go in. Sad. But, there was a time limit as it was now getting late in the day and we’re pretty close to the shortest day of the year.

We got to Lake Louisa State Park with less than an hour of sunlight left.
This park was totally different. A ranger came out and explained they would only be open for about an hour, but we could still go in if we wanted. When we said we still wanted to she took our $5 and gave us some guide books and brochures. She also assured us that we would not be chased out if we stayed a bit late and the exit gate would open for us.
Much nicer.
So, if you’re going to spend time time camping in FL, I strongly suggest Lake Louisa as the place to head. They’re very nice there and it is a huge park with lots of lakes and camp sites.
And, when I say a huge park, we had to drive about 10 minutes to get to the parking area near the lake.
But, we did get there.

We quickly headed down the board walk to the lake.

As soon as we were in site of the lake

mariness shouted “Look! There is an alligator!”

My wife said she saw it. I’m not saying it wasn’t there, but I can’t say I saw it either. I’m told it is out about half way to the other shore swimming crosswise to the waves which is why it is visible.

I didn’t see it. We looked for a fair bit of time and detailed directions were give to me about where to look.

But, the wind was pretty strong and there were a lot of dark waves moving across the lake. Looking for two bumps moving in a different direction then the others didn’t work out for me.
Sad.

We managed to get to the gate and back out before sunset. On the way home we drove past one of the biggest collections of Christmas decorations I’ve ever seen.

Then, we picked up Thomas again and all went out to dinner.

It was a nice day where we got to see a lot more of Florida then the urban sprawl, which made me very happy. And, it is always nice to spend time with my cousins.

But, I do have to say, if I was asked to testify under oath that wild alligators still live in Florida I’d have to say “not that I’ve seen.”