Alligators, Elephants, and Roosters

The weather has hampered us a bit in getting out and about- that and a young toddler who has not been feeling well.  Around Christmas time we had 80 degrees weather and spent a lot of time on the beach and in the swimming pool.  After the New Year the weather turned cooler, with some rainy days.
We were fortunate to discover Sawgrass Park, which is next door to our rv park.  What encouraged us to explore that park is that it has a boardwalk, which is very convenient in containing a toddler who wants to be independent and explore everything on his own!

Sawgrass Park is primarily a large swamp, noted for its alligators, large turtles, and bird life.

It was surprising for John and I to learn that we have alligators located close to where we are parked!

And the circus has arrived in Tampa, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey, that is!  We learned from the paper that their train was arriving early Tuesday morning.  Despite the very cool weather we were at the train station, on time, with Melissa and our grandson.  No trains came in, but instead a fleet of large trucks arrived on the parade route.  They proceeded to unload horses and three elephants for the parade through the streets of downtown Tampa.  We learned that the circus train had arrived earlier than planned, like at midnight the night before!  We were disappointed, but it still was all right for Nathan who enjoyed the horses and elephants.  By the way, it's one of the last years to see the elephants in action.  In 2015 the producer of the circus announced that after 145 years of featuring elephants in acts, the 13 Asian elephants still traveling with the circus would be moved to a conservation center in Florida by 2018.
 After the small parade we drove over to the Cuban area of town looking for a sandwich shop.  After parking we heard roosters crowing- that was a bit of surprise as we thought we were in the heart of the city.  Soon we saw a few roosters and chickens roaming around between the shops and houses.  More excitement for little Nathan!  I think John and I will have to do some sight-seeing on our own to make my postings of this area a bit more interesting!