oh man, you haven't lived till you've seen garters coming out of hibernation!
do you ever do any herping? around here you can go out in mid-april and if you know where to look or if you just get lucky you can find great masses of them coming out of the rocks.
Awesome, I have herped around since Costa Rica. I've been meaning to though. I promised myself I would find a rattlesnake. I've never seen one in the wild.