We live in Seattle and our 10 year old son wants to see a swamp with alligators.
We don't have those around here--any ideas?

Florida Everglades

The New Orleans zoo has a boardwalk over a swamp where you can look down at all the 'gators sunning themselves.


The Okefenoke Swamp has guided tours but no guarantee of seeing alligators. (We didn't see any when we took the tour, but saw other kinds of wildlife.)

I would think the only thing even remotely close to you is any sizable zoo.

The golf courses at Kiawah!

Surely the Oregon zoo has crocodiles, if not alligators. If it's an actual swamp with alligators that he wants, I vote for New Orleans as the easiest destination: fly in and book a swamp tour, with Honey Island Swamp Tours, preferably. The Everglades are harder to get to and are more or less the entire destination.

But they are like dolphins-you might see them you might not. And they are hard to spot in the water unless you really know how to look. A good swamp guide will know. These people might be able to help you:
http://www.supportbtnep.org/

I volunteered with them after Katrina. They are wonderful.

Visit the U of Fla in Gainesville - you get the human gators and when I went there, there were plenty of the animal type at the water treatment plant area (Lake Alice) and at Paynes's Prairie, just south of town.

If you like, you can visit the sales department of our company.

Rent him the old tv series "Gentle Ben" starring Dennis Weaver and Ron Howard's little brother. I think there was a feature film version too, set in the everglades.

He might also enjoy watching "Flipper".

If he has an interest in crocs, the Rio Tarcoles in Costa Rica offers some great tours. Are you looking for U.S. only?

http://crocodilerivertour.com/

If you want U.S., we went kayaking in the cypress swamps near Charleston and saw lots of them there.

There is an old urban legend that they are in the sewer systems of NYC. That started 50, 60 years ago when NY'ers visited Florida and supposedly brought back baby alligators as gifts, which were subsequently flushed down the toilet.

Now that would be adventure travel, lol.

These are some great ideas and some very funny answers. Thanks everyone. To newbe Seattle zoo is better than Oregon/Portland zoo and they don't have alligators. We have already been to NYC and unfortunately didn't see any there but come to think of it some of my sales colleagues are a little alligator ish. New Orleans is intriguing if we can find other kid stuff.

Have fun, and IMHO, it is far more interesting that he asks for alligators than Disneyworld. And probably safer.

They have alligators at the Oregon Zoo:
http://www.oregonzoo.org/discover/animals
The Seattle Zoo may be better and all...

We saw a number of them at Okefenokee in late April. If you go there, be sure to visit all three entrances to the park. Each has its own interest. We did see the most alligators from the Waycross, Ga. entrace.