E

E is for Everglades.

The boat speeds through the narrow passage, gently bouncing up and down on the smooth, glittering surface of the water. It navigates the narrow, maze-like paths with ease. Then we pick up even more speed. The wind is so strong that my eyes are watering and my hair flies out behind me. Soon we start to bounce up and down on the surface roughly, and the boat slows down. Just then, we turn into a big pond. The boat slows to a stop. I don't understand why we have stopped, but when I stand up, I see why. I definitely see why. In front of the boat is a 9 foot alligator.

During the March Break, I went to Florida with one of my best friends, Madi. While we were there, we went swimming, tanning, shopping, and jogging. On one afternoon, Madi came downstairs asking if we have ever been on airboat ride through the Everglades. I was a little doubtful, but because I had never been, we decided to check it out. At the time, I didn't know that it would be one of the most fun things I have done in my whole life. The next morning we set off.

As soon as we got in our boat, we headed off to a warm, quiet pond, where we floated around for a few minutes, chatting with the boat driver. All of a sudden, he stopped talking, and pointed to something in the water. When we peered down, we saw a sort of grey and tan animal, and lots of bubbles. Apparently the animal had been a manatee! I was very lucky to see one this time of year, because they usually aren't around in that area in March. Then we set off to these maze like paths, that were small and narrow. It was really fun though, because we could go really fast down those paths because there weren't many animals there. The path would open up into a little pond every once in a while, and we would look around to see if we could find any alligators, or other creatures. Flying around and above those little ponds were about a thousand pelicans. As we exited the first path, one landed right on the boat. It was practically sitting on me and Madi!!! Eventually it got bored and flew off (but not before a photo shoot of course!).

After some floating around, and speeding through the little paths for a while, we came into a big pond. The boat suddenly came to a fast stop. When we looked around to figure out why, there was a huge ALLIGATOR!!! It was 9 feet long! It was so scary!!! On our trip, we saw one more alligator that was only 7 feet long, but still really cool.

Overall, without this experience, the whole vacation would have been different. By taking the risk, we gained not only a lot of fun, but many memories. I hope that one day, you might get to go on an airboat ride through the everglades of Florida!

Life Lesson: Take risks. Try something new. You might just have the best time of your life.

I commented on Georgia's, and Rowena's blog this week.