South Carolina Alligator - In the sun

In August of 2012, I was able to take time off from work and travel with the family to South Carolina.  Interesting note that out of the six nights that the house was rented, I spent only three there.  C's father lives in the geographical area and I have friends that needed visiting.  I had a vacation within the vacation.  And a lot of extra miles on the truck.
So - wonderful family vacation.  Seemed to work out for all of us.
We met up with C's dad for a 'cruise' down a coastal river.  The river name escapes me now.  We 'chartered' a captain and boat for the afternoon.  The first mate was a wonderful dog, what a neat crew.  It was a great time.
Not only am I an ugly American, but I'm an ugly traveler as well.  I know nothing about anything outside my orbit.  So in SC, what did I expect to see on the river?  Who knows, I acted like a small child the whole time.  Every critter was new to me.  No idea what they were.  But could hardly wait to see the next one.  Line 'em up Captain.
So let's go to the top of the food chain.  Gators.
We saw a few close to shore, some on shore and some gator eyes in the water.  The eyes were fun to watch, but we weren't close enough to make it an interesting photograph.  Maybe that was good?
We drifted around a bend and saw this gator just sunning on some sand.  He moved a bit, I'm thinking that it was looking for its next meal.  At one point, the gator was stretched out and I'm guessing around six feet in length.
I'm not sure what makes a good gator picture, maybe any one you can walk away from?

ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, 200 mm

In 2012 I was shooting with the D90.  About at that time, I was also shooting with very limited knowledge.  This image is cropped fairly aggressively.  It meets the monitor test, but won't go into the hall of fame. 
(Really, it's out here as support for reasoning to get longer lens.  Maybe Santa will see this?)