Gator quest

For the past week I have been on vacation, which I expected to be filled with hiking and nature and swims in the ocean. Instead, it's looked mostly like this:


























(Please note that it was so dark at 3pm that I couldn't even tell that I'd accidentally left the "black&white" setting on in the camera!)

Oh well...what's a little rain? It's given me plenty of time to read, make stuff and enjoy all the pie I can eat. Yesterday it cleared up enough that I was able to view some nature, which I hoped would include a sighting of an alligator. Instead I got this guy:




















And a dried up marsh that normally holds many alligators, but was so dry on this day that it looked like the surface of the moon or some other faraway planet:




















I find this befuddling. If it has been raining for five days straight, why is this land so parched? I guess that's the way a drought works though--it is dry for months, then rains so hard all at once that the land can't soak it up. Right, scientist-readers?

Anyway, after moving locations I did finally spot an alligator. He was so far away though, that it didn't really have the horror movie feel I was hoping for. But here's the top of his head, for your viewing pleasure:




















Luckily, some liquids remain in ample supply: