Jungle Queen

Saturday morning we all set off to take a boat excursion through the canals of Ft. Lauderdale on the Jungle Queen. Who knew that it was going to be SO cold??!! None of us were dressed properly, except maybe Jed, and he howled the most about being cold! We departed at 9:30 and by 10, I think we were all pretty frozen! Here's our boat:
Here's Lutz, Roger, and the boys waiting to get onto the boat.
And, the gang once we had taken our place in the SUN!
And, then Lutz took one with ME in it! Yeah! Too bad I have the wind-blown do...why doesn't anyone TELL you this when you're getting your picture taken??!!
And, on this trip, we got to see how the other folks live...very well, apparently. Here is the house that Bruce Willis & Demi Moore shared when she was filming Striptease. Not too shabby, and I believe it's for sale, if anyone is interested...
And, these folks spare no expense on their Christmas decorations...they had the staff putting them out already!
The other thing that was fascinating to me and the boys, at least, was all of the iguanas...they were everywhere! Here's some sunning themselves on a concrete canal wall...see 'em to the right of the pole? There's a little one in front of the far right post, and a big one just on the other side of it.
Part of the excursion was that we stopped on a "tropical island" and got to see monkeys, parrots, and alligators. As we were docking on this island, I noticed that there was a very large iguana in the tree right next to us!
Once on the island, we immediately headed for the snack shack for coffees, hot chocolates, and nibbles in the hope of warming up a little (my fingers were tingling by now!). Shortly after we arrived, the alligator show began...I don't remember this guy's name other than his last name was One Bear. They were big alligators too...
He was planning to "wrestle" or whatever with the little one - named "Blackie." Hmmm...Blackie's looking ticked here...
And, this does NOT look like friendly territory...can you see that Mr. One Bear's right thumb is missing?? Yeah, he explained to us that it was taken off by an alligator last year and that he apologized because he now has to work with a handicap. Okay, I was getting nervous - and I was wondering where the backup dude with the gun was...there didn't seem to be one!
And, then Mr. One Bear did the "face off" trick - he called it the "face off" because if anything went wrong, the alligator would take his face off. Great. Lovely. And, I was thinking of the psychological trauma my children would suffer after witnessing such a thing...and I was wondering this because Mr. One Bear seemed (rightfully so) VERY nervous about what he was doing.
I can't tell you HOW happy I was when the show was over. Time to get back on the boat!

After the tropical island stop, we scoped out an RV park for our friends Bill & Gayle. Everyone should have a multi-million dollar yacht to go with their RV - don't you think? Bill & Gayle, let us know when you and Villa Aladdin take up residence there! We'll come to visit!
And, I would like this to be my new home...a girl can dream, can't she?
And, while we saw a lot of fancy living, this one took the prize for extravagance. I mean, honestly, how important are you (or more importantly, how much money do you have?) that you need/can afford to have a helicopter ON your 3-story yacht? I mean, really, folks!! Is it really necessary? BTW, we have a health care crisis and a whole lot of homeless people...I'm hoping these folks donate to charities!
Fortunately, for us, the ride back was much warmer than the ride going, and we started to thaw, but it was a very nice trip, I thought. And, we all got plenty of fresh air!