Reptile Gardens

Today we ventured to a place known as “Reptile Gardens,” a zoo-type facility housing various forms of reptiles (snakes, turtles, lizards, alligators, crocodiles, etc.), prairie dogs, birds, and more.

The prairie dog exhibit was pretty hilarious, especially since nobody knew what prairie dogs were doing in the Reptile Gardens. I’ve always thought that prairie dogs always look and act like they are expecting to be bombed or attacked at any moment. They’re very alert in that way. But the best part was the bubble in the middle where you could go underground and stick your head in there to see the dogs at eye-level.

I have never had so many awesome experiences with alligators/crocodiles in my L-Y-P-H-E. The alligator show. This was a demonstration by a young, slightly gangly man named Josh who had also led the snake show for us earlier that day. His stage was a small enclosure filled with maybe 30 large alligators and crocodiles. For his show, he “wrestled” an alligator, which was really just him sitting on an alligator’s back, shutting the gator’s eyes, and moving its arms like the chicken dance. What made it so entertaining was that the surrounding large gators and crocs stopped looking dead and statue-like and began creeping up towards the wrangler from behind, some with their threatening mouths open. Dad kept nudging me, wiggling his eyebrows, obviously having a thrilling time. The guy made a few jokes about the danger coming from all sides and finally made it out alive, coming back to let the crowd pet a dwarf alligator who had his mouth taped shut. So not only did we pet that alligator, which was super interesting in texture, but also one of the huge crocs in the water who was close to me and Joe splashed us by slapping his giant tail down in the water in front of us. An alligator splashed me. Is that normal?

 

The biggest attraction of Reptile Gardens was “Maniac,” a Salt Water Crocodile measuring 15 feet in length and weighing 1,100 pounds. The name Maniac doesn’t really fit his personality, since supporting 1,100 pounds on four tiny legs doesn’t get you very far very fast. I would’ve named him something along the lines of Monster, since his massive size was really all he had goin’ for him.

My favorite part was "Ask Henda," an advice specialist who, for 25 cents, would answer yes or no to 1 of 6 selected questions. What made this so exciting? Only that "Henda" was a chicken.

Apparently I take good pictures so instead of me typing the stories, I’ll show you them.