Florida

Florida is one state that has always boggled my mind. In one small, flat peninsula there are so many different types of places. Orlando is nothing like Miami, Melbourne is nothing like Panama City Beach, and the Keys are in a league of their own.

My favorite part of Florida is the back country and the Everglades. The vegetation grows in thick and fierce and it looks like a jungle. On one visit, I took an air-boat out into the Everglades to look at alligators. To get to the outfitter, I drove five or six miles down a rutted dirt road, surrounded thickly on each side by vegetation. The outfitter hut had a wooden porch with rocking chairs and a building made with metal siding. It had that creepy Deliverance vibe.

The guy that took us out had a thick southern, back-country accent. While usually I love southern accents, this guy just sounded like he was taking us out to feed us to the alligators. As we got further into the marsh, if you focused real hard on the water, you could see eyes resting on the surface just looking at the boat. As we got closer you could see just how big they were. Some were easily 12 feet long. The way there bodies are constructed there is no doubt that they were descended from dinosaurs.

On the hour and a half long tour, we easily saw 50 gators and even some small foot long baby alligators. Once I got over the fear of one climbing up into the boat, I noticed and respected how majestic they are. They are huge and fierce but don't seem to fight unless provoked. As creepy as it is to know there is an animal that could kill you five feet away from you in the water, it really was interesting to see them in their natural environment.

Gator watching was better than Disney World by far.

Conneticut

In a line from the new Stepford wives movie (the one with Nicole Kidman) Glen Close explains, "Where better to hide a town of robots than Connecticut?" I have to say that I agree with this sentiment.

Though I have yet to spend a significant amount of time in Connecticut, I've driven through it a few times on the way to New York or to Boston. The drives to me were always bland. All the little towns looked alike. They had storefronts, a gas station, and a post office covering one block which composes the town center and small townhouses branch out from there. None of it is prarticularly interesting or attractive.

My father is a big naval buff, he loves tall ships and stories of pirates, so we took a day to visit Mystic Seaport. DO NOT GO unless you have a serious interest in ships and their inner-workings. Its a major tourist trap in my opinion. They have a lot of old boats and a lot of history but its just all very boring.

While I don't dislike Conneticut, I don't see it being the destination for my next vacation.