Matthew had to go out of town for work and I was feeling adventurous so, instead of my normal Monday routine of grocery shopping and laundry, we threw caution to the wind and drove two and a half hours South to Wildlife Safari.
I have heard about Wildlife Safari for years but the drive always put me off. A couple of years ago we were going to be driving past on our way home from a family reunion so I thought we would stop and see it then but the kids were so very DESPERATE to get home that we drove on past, saving it for another day. Well that day was today.
My children are not road trippers by nature or experience and the drive was long for them but thanks to some friends who joined us, they had a fun time despite the drive. Wildlife Safari, for those who may not know, is a large preserve with free-range animals (the carnivores were the only one behind fences). We drove through oohing and aahing at the roaming herds of giraffes, gnus, bison, and geese, just to name a few. It was so amusing to me that there are all of these amazing animals to see so closely and yet Doodah was more interested in pointing out just about every geese he saw, no matter how not exotic they may be.
A few highlights: Feeding the animals. I had an expired Groupon that they honored via free feed cups for a few of the animals. I'm not honestly sure what those two animals (pictured above are) but the kids were terrified and elated at the same time to be able to feed them. I was mostly just terrified and divvied the contents of my cup to the kids.
At one point my, my friend suggested Chewkie touch the male equivalent of the deer-like animal's (again see above) antlers. That totally startled him but just enough to show her he did NOT like that level of intimacy. No one was harmed emotionally or physically.
Another highlight was the spring contingency of newborns. All of the animals seemed to have their share of young. But the goslings were, by far, the most abundant. And they were crazy adorable, especially the family swimming around the pond or the geese parade (parent in front, then babies, then parent bringing up the rear) that forced us to stop so they could mosey across the road.
The last highlight was the safari village, made up of animal encounters (see camel we did not pay to ride), fun photo op, a petting zoo, more animals to see, a giftshop (see Doodah's snapping turtle he was so excited about), and food. At the front of the village, they suggest a donation since it's free to enter. At first I thought it was just another ploy to extract money but after spending a solid amount of time doing all the things (again minus the camel - oh and the train ride) I thought a donation was totally merited.
After the village, we took about a tenth of the time to drive the safari a second time and oohed and aahed at what animals had moved where, who were more alert, who were napping in the shade, and who just how adorable those goslings really are.
By the time we got home we had been in the car for the better part of 9 hours and the kids sanity was completely drained. We had a quick dinner and determined that everyone needed quiet time after our bedtime routine. But despite the exhaustion everyone agreed that they would totally do it again. Good job Wildlife Safari. You lived up to the hype.
