The locals...

More from our trip to Florida in April...

I've been to the Carolinas and Florida several times, and I've even been to the Bahamas twice. I've seen tons of little lizards, mostly of the green anole variety...a couple of them within the grasp of my son's hands. But I've never come across local inhabitants the size of these guys.

As we were walking around the resort property our first evening, I caught sight of a couple of what I'm going to call miniature dragons, and I quickly snapped a photo, thinking they'd slither out of sight. But, no, they stood their ground, giving me no choice but to try and get closer. Armed with only my 85mm fixed lens, no less.

I was a teeny bit frightened that one might jump on me or hiss or something, but I was a whole lot fascinated. They really were pretty cool. I had another one of those "man, I wish Mickey could see this" moments, and then, with visions of him leaping over landscaping barriers in pursuit of lizards at Sea World, I was instantly grateful he wasn't there. By the way, if you haven't seen the video, click here to get a good laugh of my son's antics a couple of years ago.

And apparently the locals are morning folk, too. The last two shots were taken just before we left Marathon early Monday morning. Got close again...to give you an idea, this guy's body, not including his tail, was a good 12-15 inches long.