Naples ZOO

Our first outing for Mike's vacation was the Naples Zoo. 

I knew this wasn't a big city zoo but I really expected a whole lot more from them. They had all your typical animals, big cats, bears, and monkeys. Here's a few of the big cats.

I'm getting frustrated with the camera because everything is behind the cages and you can't get a good shot through the wire. I'm doing the best I know how.

They had an alligator exhibit. We made sure we there on time to watch. It was lame. There were 2 guys across the canal, one yammering on about alligators and the other running around with a stick poking at them so they would come up on the shore. He'd throw a piece of meat to them and then poke them a few more times. That's about it. I must be jaded, I guess. We've been to the show at Gator Rama and it's much more exciting and fun. They get the gators to jump up out of the water to get their treat.

This is Red EYE, the biggest, oldest gator they have. He's been in a lot of fights.

Here's one exhibit I was looking forward to. You get to feed the giraffes.

Unfortunately, they wanted $5 for three pieces of lettuce. I passed and just watched others feeding them. Pretty cool, they make a ton of money from this.

 It was stifling out there. None of the animals were out and about. All of them were hiding in the shade. They have fans all around, all pointed at the animals. There was absolutely no breeze in that entire zoo. We were drenched in sweat. I would have loved to see the hyenas up and moving around.

I've decided that I am just a bad tourist. The things we saw most were things I've seen time and again... in my own backyard. Yep, watching the ducks go at it!

I'm  not sure what kind of fish these are. Anybody? I tried to find out, but there were no signs and nobody around to ask. 

So we kind of gave up and spent most of our time walking through the more botanical parts of the zoo. There are all kinds of interesting gnarly twisted trees and exotic palms and plants.

Dudes, these trees were spectacular!

So to sum up, we spent good money to go to a zoo and see wild animals that you wouldn't normally get to see in your own backyard. Well, not so much here.  Okay, it's all good. I walked away with a pocket full of seeds we collected from various exotic plants and trees, just laying on the ground. I'll stick them in some dirt here and there and in about 3 or 4 months I'll post pictures asking what the hell kind of plant it is. (Yes, I'm a seed filcher!)

Tomorrow we are heading to Fort Myers Beach for a deep sea fishing trip! We are going on one of the cattle boats but it's off season and middle of the week so hopefully there won't be too many people there. Mike now has a smart phone so I will be posting (hopefully) pictures of our catch on the go.

See ya in a few....