New York Alligator

After a day Monday that began with a phone call informing me that my mother in law was being taken to the emergency room and ended with her hospitalized with double pneumonia and other issues, I decided to take it easy today.

I am sharing this photo I took Saturday in Otsiningo Park in Binghamton, New York.

I suspect someone saw the same thing in this log as I saw, but added two stones for eyes and some "prey".

Does it look like an alligator to you?

My mother in law is slowly getting better, but there seems to be a lot of pneumonia going around recently, possibly due to our recent weather conditions.

Perhaps that is a blog post for another time.

Throwback Saturday - Filling in a Hole

I originally wrote this post in March of 2013, during a late winter vacation.  A fellow blogger's post about a restaurant in Tybee Island, Georgia, inspired me to rerun this post.  Two different opinions about the same restaurant.  Small world.  Now, the post:

In 2006, I rode the Auto Train for the first time. I traveled with my family from northern Virginia to just north of Orlando, Florida one August.  (I've made this train trip south three times now, the most recent trip being a week and a half ago.)

I've never slept well on the Auto Train, and something happened on that first trip that has become a tradition.

I woke up from a fitful sleep to realize we were traveling through a city.  We were passing under an Interstate, and some large billboards were visible.  One billboard, lit up, advertised "The Crab Shack. Tybee Island."

I didn't have Internet access and had never heard of Tybee Island. But I researched it as soon as I could and found it was an island close to Savannah, Georgia.

The second trip, 2009.  I woke up from a fitful sleep, and as my spouse softly snored next to me, I peeked out of the window and saw - the very same sign.

It was a sign (literally)!  I was being told to eat at the Crab Shack. 

We were supposed to drive through Savannah on the way home but had car trouble, and had to take the Auto Train home.  We swore we would visit Savannah and we did (two years ago) but we never got to eat at the Crab Shack.

This Auto Train trip, earlier in March, we both woke up as we were traveling through Savannah, and my spouse spotted the sign even before I did.  Marveling at this huge (to our sleep-bleary eyes) sign, we decided that yes, we would go to the Crab Shack.  We would fill in this hole in our travels.

So yesterday, we filled in the hole.

From the outside, it looks like a "tourist trap".  But the food (noting I do not get compensated for this or any other review) was good.

Inside, I noticed the restaurant had open walls to the outside - with only a screen between diners and the great outdoors.  If only I could live in a place like that, said my winter-starved inner voice.

Not so fast, said reality, as I saw movement outside the screened in wall.  Can you see what I saw?

No, they weren't lunch

After lunch we went outside, to see some of the 78 alligators the Crab Shack owns. These are all domestic, as in "born in captivity".  The Shack does not tolerate any abuse of the gators by customers, but they were easily accessible (if someone dared) and I hope they have good lives.

Up close, they almost look fake - but they certainly were not fake.

Have you ever eaten in a restaurant because of something you kept seeing?

Alligators Along the Susquehanna

...and, a Johnson City drainage ditch.  Near our new Wal-Mart, no less. (The Johnson City one has been caught, according to the news.)

Our local CBS affiliate got a picture of the Susquehanna alligator.

First, decorated dinosaurs...now real live alligators.  I'm sure the fishermen in this area aren't amused, and neither are the people who like to gather at various unofficial "swimmin' holes" along the Susquehanna.

However, as someone who grew up in NYC (land of the alligators in the sewers) and lived in Florida (alligators in ditches there are a dime a dozen)...well, we probably have more to worry about from snapping turtles around here.

Of course, if someone actually gets hurt, it won't be a joke anymore.

Who says Binghamton is boring?

And folks, please...alligators do NOT make good pets.  Or Upstate NY wildlife.  Just ask the folks in Florida, who fish them out of swimming pools and other spots.