Myakka River State Park

So while Jon was visiting me in Florida he said that he really wanted to see an alligator up close. I told him I could do that but I wasn't just going to take him to a zoo, I was going to take him to see a gator up close and personal.

I took him to Myakka River State Park which is a little south east of Sarasota. We used to go there a lot when I was a kid, my brother really liked it and would always say "let's go to Myakka, let's go to Myakka". I apparently would always say, "let's go to Brussakka, let's go to Brussakka" much to everyones confusion. I guess they finally figured out that I thought the park belonged to my brother so I was putting "bruh" for brother in the place of the "my", thinking it was literally my brother's-akka park. still makes sense to me.

Anyways, we had such a great time. We rented our canoes at around 10:30 and the woman said it was such and such an amount for the first hour and then an extra $5 after the first hour was up. I was all, "oh I'm sure we'll want to explore for at least a couple hours". Yeah, hardly. It was incredibly hot, and I had forgotten how challenging it is to paddle a canoe. It wasn't so much my arms that got tired but more my back from sitting on the weird metal seat with no back and having to prop myself up. I kept thinking about the early explorers who would have traveled through these florida swamps for days in a canoe. They must have had great backs!

We saw several alligators, but none let us get very close to them. They would be sitting right at the surface watching us and then when we got maybe 20 ft away they would just slowly sink under the surface. It was really unsettling. Whenever i watch alligators I think about how an acting teacher once told us that when Anthony Hopkins was researching for the role of Hannibal Lecter he decided to base the character on a true cold blooded killer, the alligator, so he would go to the zoo and watch them for hours. If you know alligators mannerisms and you watch the movie with that understanding it really is incredible. There's something about how they are so still and just watch you, but then when they do move it's very deliberate and calculated. Whenever we would be in the middle of one of those giant fields of lilly pads we would all of a sudden see a couple of them move just a little bit and get so freaked out that it was some giant 12 foot gator just under the surface watching us floundering in our metal coffin.

But we didn't die, we ended up having a really fun time, and definitely made it back within the initial hour, both drenched in sweat and exhausted.