florida trip: the bonnet house

When The Man and I found out that we would be heading to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for Nick's wedding, we started looking for things to do in that area.  Ultimately we made the decision to stay four hours away in Orlando (the amazing deal that's still going on with Universal Studios really was just too good to pass up), but in my googling I found The Bonnet House.

It boasted of spider monkeys living in the trees.  Need I know more?

The Bonnet House was a mere 10 minutes away from the wedding location so when all was said and done there we swung by to see what we could see.

What I imagined was swarms of monkeys hanging out in the trees.  What we found out was that there were five.  Total.  On 35 acres.  They told us that only about 20% of the people who visit actually get to see a monkey.  But they had been seen that day and helpful volunteers of the Bonnet House pointed us towards their last known whereabouts.

On our search for the monkeys were told to check out Peaches.  We were told that if we clapped, danced, and sang that peaches would join in with us.  We found peaches first and decided to try it out.  I felt absolutely ridiculous dancing and clapping for this bird, a few other people were milling around and I was very aware of them, but I finally pushed it out of my mind and performed for Peaches.  I wasn't disappointed.

We got Peaches to dance for me again and that time was much better than this time, he flared his head feathers and started wailing in a high pitched voice, it was hilarious.

Everytime we go on vacation The Man and I have incredible good luck.  This trip was no exception.  Let alone the great deal we that we found to even go,  but we also found ourselves to be among the 20% to see the monkeys.  It got better still, not only did we get to see one, but we got to see two, which the volunteers gushed at, "this is so rare to see two of them together."

I wasn't quick enough but you can barely see the head of the second at the top of this next picture.  I almost had both of them!

They didn't want us to hand feed the monkeys but I got to throw a nut up to one.  He swung out with only his tail holding on and caught it. 

I'm smitten.

I got to hold and pet Papa the parrot.

After that little outing we headed back up to Orlando for our last day.  On our way we saw this monster:

The guy who was pulling it looked out his window and caught me taking pictures of his truck.  I gave him a cheesy, sheepish grin and then gave him a thumbs up.  Luckily he laughed at me and returned the thumbs up.

Whew, I'm glad I didn't have to get beat up for taking pictures of his stuff without asking.