Cypress Gardens

 Well, I can now check the Cypress Gardens off my list, however, that doesn't mean I won't go back.  This was the number one place that I wanted to visit!   I loved this place so much!  It was gorgeous!  I couldn't stop taking pictures.  I wanted to go here last week but it was raining and I knew the whole experience wouldn't be as good, and I'm glad I waited!  Its about 25 minutes from our house so not too far, and I've been reading about it.  Its a big park area, that has the swamps, and other cool stuff to see like hundreds of butterflies, crocodiles, exotic turtles and lots of other stuff. 

 It was so nice because we got there and they told us that we could just go jump on a boat and row ourselves around or we could pay a tour guide $5.00 to row us, and I definitely wanted to TAKE MY TIME so we did the self tour.  It was just the two of us in a little old wooden boat!  Super cool!  We were out on the water for probably an hour.  You didn't have to rush, you could take as long as you want.  There were bridges that we went underneath as we went through the gardens. 

 This was actually after our boat ride....I'm not really going in order.

 We saw alligators, 6 of them to be exact.  3 adults and 3 babies, this was in the wild out in the swamps with us. This was definitely the highlight! We were hoping that we'd see some.  They are so camouflage in all of the lily pads.  Yikes! 

 Baby alligator!  They make these scream sort of noises and we wondered why, someone told us that it means they are kinda nervous and that their moms would not be far away from them! Oh boy!  Its pretty weird walking around a big swamp area where alligators roam. 

 I've ALWAYS loved nature and flowers.  I feel like I take so many pics of them, but I just love how beautiful they are!  In fact, I was taking this photo right before we saw the first alligator, so I'm surprised that it turned out.

 This was at the dock in our boat together before we took off.  The park worker was nice enough to take a quick pic of both of us!

 It was one of the best Mother's Day's ever for me!  Kade was so awesome to take me out and have fun!  He did a good job rowing us!  We only hit like 3 trees! haha!  ......and we didn't sink, so it was a success!

 So here's the story of us seeing our first alligator:  We are rowing along, very slowly.  I am taking pictures, of course.  We are headed towards an old bridge.  I'm in the middle of taking a picture of a lily blossom, and Kade says, "CIARA, ALLIGATOR, ALLIGATOR!!"  I say, "Shut up! Where!??"  my heart about came out of my chest!  I whirled around and saw the alligator cross the trail that heads over the bridge, and down into the water by our boat.  He starts to swim towards our boat......by this time, I say, "UUMMMM, Kade? I don't know how I feel about this......"  We are both just starring at this thing swimming towards us.  Then, the alligator turned away from our boat and started going behind us! FEW!!!!  I never thought I would have an encounter like that!  They are so sneaky too!

 Mr. Alligator swimming by our boat.  It was really cool to see out in the wild like that! 

 The are so long!  This one was about 5-6 feet long.  Plenty long for me! 

 It seemed like there were endless lily pads!  They were so pretty!

 My cute boat rower!  He did an awesome job!  He knows me too well.  We didn't go too fast cause he knew that I wanted to see EVERYTHING and take my time.

FUN DAY!

 I had to throw these last two in here.  Scenes from the notebook of course.  A lot of the show was filmed here in South Carolina and these scenes were filmed here in the Cypress Gardens. There is a place in the movie called Sea Brook, and it is also not far from here.  I want to go see that too!  And I was talking to a lady in church and she said that the big fancy plantation homes that where in the movie are also here...a must see as well.    There are actually a lot of movies that have been filmed here in the Cypress Gardens, another one being "The Patriot" with Mel Gibson.