Tuesday....Battleships and Alligators

This morning we had breakfast at our hotel, and while mom was getting ready, the three guys went geocaching in downtown Mobile.  We found the one we were looking for last night, and we found a second one too!  

We packed up and we headed to our next location, which was the USS Alabama Battleship Park. 

  This ship was used in WWII in the Pacific Ocean.  We were going to look up more information about the ship when we got to Florida, but our internet is not working at the hotel.  We toured the ship below and saw where the men slept and where they did everything else.  It was like a small city on the ship.  2500 men lived on the ship together.   I (Lucas) thought the most interesting part was that they had an old fashioned soda shop aboard and that the smaller ships would trade for ice cream when they were near because they didn’t have enough room to have ice cream.  

Lucas & Eliott at the back of the USS Alabama battleship

Mom and Lucas (and Dad) in the front of the USS Alabama

A very intimidating ship!

Our view from the highest possible point on the ship

After we toured below the deck, we went up top and climbed as high as we were allowed.  It was fun to see all the different guns they had on the ship too.  Some were big and some were really really big.

Look at our big guns

 We went to the front of the ship where the anchor was down.  I laid down next to the chain to show how big it was.

That's a thick chain!

After we toured the battleship we went through the hanger, which had 10 or 12 different airplanes in it.  We were hungry, so we didn’t stay long…only long enough to get some pictures for Papaw.  We headed out to see the submarine, which actually wasn’t in the water, it was next to the battleship on the land.  It was a lot smaller than the battleship and it was neat to look out of the periscope.  About 70 men stayed on the submarine together but we only counted beds for about 30.

Bunk mates on the submarine.  Lucas said comfier than home.  lol.

After we left the USS Alabama we grabbed some lunch at Zaxby’s and then went to Alligator Alley in Summerdale, AL.  They had areas for little baby alligators, and an area for 1 year olds, and an area for 2-3 year olds, and an area for 3-4 year olds.  

The 1 and 2 year old alligators

They said once they were 5 or 6 year olds then they put them in with the adults.  We bought some food to feed to them and it looked like horse pellets, if you know what I mean.  They were hard and a mixture of vitamins and fish blood and parts, and corn meal.  It sounds a lot grosser that what they are.  It was like Alligator Rice Krispies.  In the area where the 1 and 2 year olds were, there was a lady that had an alligator that we could hold.  His name was Gatorade and we all got to hold him.  

Lucas and Gatorade

Eliott and Gatorade

Dad & Gatorade

Mom really liked holding him and she said she would want to work here if it was closer to home.  

Mom & Gatorade

Mom thinks Gatorade is her baby.  Actually he was cold and the lady told her to put him on her shoulder like that.

Mom really liked how cute Gatorade was

For the adult alligators, they had a swampy area that looked like where Yoda lived except no fog.  There were boardwalks that walked over this area and we could see all of the adult alligators and feed them.  But don’t worry it was safe!  There was a fence on both sides of us. 

The beach area of the swamp for the adults

 In the back of the swamp was an alligator named Captain Crunch.  He was caught in Tallahassee, FL after he had learned to hunt for dogs at night to survive.   They measured his bite in 2002 and it was the strongest one ever on record at 3900 pounds.  He’s not the biggest alligator they have though.  That one is named Colonel.  He was next to Larry and they were both being lazy.  Colonel had a piece of food on his back someone tried to feed him and he was so lazy he just let it lay there on his back. 

The Colonel and Dad

 At 4pm it was feeding time so we went to the area that they feed them and a guy came out with a cooler and a microphone.  He was telling us about all their names and feeding them wild pig meat.  He said they have a big problem with wild pigs in that area and they have plenty of farmers that kill the hogs for them and donate the meat to the alligators.  The biggest alligator he was feeding was Buckwheat, and there were others too.  JW, Lucky, Chili-dog (who liked Jack Russel terriers before he came to live there) and Si.  It was neat to see him feed the alligators and get so close.

Time to eat!  Alligators are not graceful getting out of the water.

Buckwheat eating some wild pig meat

Once they were done feeding the gators we left, and made our way to our last stop of the day, which is….Florida!  We are staying in the same hotel we stayed in last year and we are so excited to be back next to the ocean.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to be nice and mom bought me some sand toys at the store tonight so I can get started on my sand castle and moat early in the morning.  I also got a sand claw that will help me dig my moat faster.  Hopefully Eliott will be feeling better tomorrow.  He’s not been feeling well the last two days.  He thinks he ate some bad Chinese food on Sunday.  Since our internet is not working at the hotel, we will have to wait and post this in the morning too.  Nighty night!