Fact: Day Five

There are a couple long, involved, potentially-entertaining stories from today, our first non-travel day. However, it is also so late that I feel fried.

The title for a book about today could be "How Jim and I got Suckered into Listening to a Time-Share Presentation and Then Were Treated Like We Had Leprosy When We Said No, Colon, Are You Serious the Boys Got Second-Degree Sunburns While We Were Gone?".
Of course there are no pictures of us during the parts of the day that took the most time. Because that would be pictures of Jim and I being harrassed (and deciding it was definitely NOT worth the free ticket into DisneyWorld) and then us slathering aloe vera on the boys.

But during the in-between times....here's some narration to go with What We Did Get Pictures Of, Colon, How We Saw a Giant Alligator.

We decided to go down to a lake in central Florida and ride one of those air fan boats.
Dwight noticed something unusual about the directions to get there:
The end of the 2nd line says "After the 3rd CVS from Exit 244 (turnpike), turn right on Vermont Ave." I wondered aloud what kind of notation CVS was. Some new and exciting labeling system for roads in Florida.
Jim said maybe it was CVS like the drugstore. So we started clocking CVS stores. Here's the first.

The second.And the third. Which, ironically (or not), is at the corner of Vermont Ave.

In the 11.6 miles it took us to get down the road to the airboat spot, it was dumping enormous raindrops.
We got a little snack while we waited for the rain to die down.
Relaxed in the swing while the boat driver decided if he was going to make the run with a storm so close by.
And were excited to go for a ride when it was decided that the weather would be fine.
Here is Dwight, Rach, & Jourdan with the noise-blocking headphones. That airboat was LOUD.
Gotta protect Dwight, too!
Will sticking his hand in alligator-infested waters (we saw WAY more bugs than alligators...and frankly, they were just as worrisome--get your hand out of the water, boy!)
A full alligator out of the water! Most of what we saw were eyeballs and the occasional swipe of a tail. This was the whole thing--sunning himself on a grassy spot. It was amazing. Until we pulled closer and realized he was dead.
Captain Dwight singing What do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do with a drunken sailor? What do you do with a drunken sailor early in the morning?
I was the youngest pilot in Pan Am history. When I was four, the pilot let me ride in the cockpit and fly the plane with him. And I was four. And I was great. And I would have landed it, but my dad wanted us to go back to our seats.
Here he is breaking rules, again.

We ate at Chili's after our boat ride. This is the first inkling we had that Matt wasn't feeling so good. His sunburn is the worst (although all the kids are burned pretty good). We've got him doped up (well, really just on ibuprofen) and slathered continuously in aloe vera. Wish us luck at Disney World tomorrow (we're hoping he'll be able to wear a shirt by morning).
All in all, a decent day. But hopefully better adventures to come.