Cypress Gardens

Last month sometime Alan, Sean and I went to Cypress Gardens as our "special thing" while the girls were at school.

Cypress Gardens is a local blackwater swamp that was made as a kind of holding pond on a rice plantation to flood the rice field. We took a group ride in a boat through the swamp and learned about the history... and if I'd just written this post when we got back I'd remember a lot more of it. It was pretty. When we got in the boat Alan requested that the guide show us an alligator. And he did.

Our guide Cowboy said this was probably a female about 6 feet long. And that a gator can leap up out of the water to a height equal to his length.

He told us lots of other things too. Alan was impressed that Cowboy got his name from being a former rodeo rider.

By the end of the boat ride Alan was a little tired of doing all the listening and started to complain, "He talks all the time!"

Cypress Gardens was used in the movie The Patriot. Here's a (fake) stone bridge used in a few places in the movie. After our visit I had to watch the movie to see...

In addition to the swamp and the trail going around it, there was a butterfly house there. Alan was fascinated by the bees.

There was a koi pond in the butterfly house and Alan got to feed the fish.

And there was a guard duck on duty named Cypress. The duck seemed to like Sean. But the duck did not like me. He refused to let me get by him and I had to go the other way around the circle to get to Alan. Cypress sat at my feet and pecked me and bit at me whenever I moved. Not my favorite duck. Alan thought it funny though.

We also saw plenty of butterflies and caterpillars and eggs in the butterfly house. Somehow whenever we have made a special outing that has one of these silly signs I get talked into posing in it.Alan got a smashed penny to commemorate the occasion. I would have chosen the one with a picture of a boat on it. He picked one with a big catfish.

It was a fun place to go and lots to see. I'd like to take the girls back and maybe get to walk part of the trail around the swamp... but maybe I'd pick a time of year when the mosquitoes aren't so thick on the trail.