When In South Florida...

I guess do what the other tourists do...  

Hop on airboats and go to alligator wrestling shows, right?

Sounds like a plan. 

My mother-in-law was extremely excited all holiday weekend to go visit Everglades Holiday Park, which is a tourist trap if I've ever seen one, but still full of fun stuff to do at the same time.

The main attractions are alligators, and you can view them in many ways. The first way was an airboat ride through the Everglades. We didn't see a lot of gators "in the wild" on our hour boat ride, but the two we did see swam right beside the boat, so that was pretty neat.

After the airboat ride, we also had the opportunity to watch an alligator wrestling show. The "Gator Boys" of television fame have a small alligator pit behind the Holiday Park gift shop. 

Paul Bedard, easily recognizable from the Animal Planet series, put on about a 20-minute show, teaching everyone about alligators, particularly how nuisance alligators are dealt with in Florida, and showing some pretty interesting handling techniques.

Finally, my mother-in-law really wanted to get her picture taken with a baby alligator. Everybody else in the family wanted to leave. Lilly wanted nothing to do with touching alligators. I ended up going with her for the photo. She got to hold her gator, I held an albino boa. 

It was my Britney Spears VMA moment, and also an excuse to post this photo.

In the end, it was pretty fun afternoon. Not sure if there would ever be a need to go back again, but definitely one of those attractions worth stopping by once. If you're ever planning on being in South Florida, you can learn more about Everglades Holiday Park HERE.