Advisor, snakes, alligators, gardens, air-boats

Much to our dismay, our air-boat reservations were canceled. But after consulting Mr.Slim Jim (my newly acquired sanity and shoulder adviser)

We decided to cruz on up to Mobile, Alabama anyway and try and find a replacement. So after an early rising and more motel breaky we hit the road. After a few trips up and down Battleship Parkway, a tip or two from Jim and many from my co-travelers. A quick stop at a fishing dock, some conversation that included some local color about our previous air boat operator We were able to obtain another ride at 6:30pm. (curbside service complete with a calling card after one of the ladies went in for water) Now that left us with a whole day to tourist, so it was off too the Bellingrath gardens which turned out too be awesome. If your ever in the area this is an ot to be missed site. 

http://www.bellingrath.org/

 And of course do not pass up a chance to ride a lion.

Then it was off to find some much needed sustenance, 5 coffees, three biscuits and gravy and a few hard boiled eggs don't last long. Lucky us we found one that was good and even though it was crowded it didn't take long to get fed. 

http://www.sonnysbbq.com/menu 

Now it was time to head to the Blue Gill restaurant on Battleship Parkway

http://bluegillrestaurant.com/
so we could meet our air-boat at their dock. Much to our surprise How did we know there was a party going on and we were way early. So there was nothing to do but crowd into a spot, get approval to leave car there from fiendly lil manager and order up some desert. Soon our boat arrived and it was off to the swamp to hunt down some alligators and see the sunset.

 Snice this is all swamp and about 2 feet deep in most place the only place to see the gators is in the water, once they get in the reeds we couldn't see them. But we did get to see everything from one footers to 12 footers in the water or slithering into the reeds. It was nice and cool and the 1.5 hour long tour went bye way too fast. So with the sun setting we headed back to the dock.

Time to head home, another evening twilight supper at the pool and no plans for Sunday except breaky and a slow 9am start. Life is good when you've had dessert first.