Friday, May 22, 2020

Alabama Safari Park

Now this was a really fun day, and I am so glad Magan mentioned it to me.  We had seen pictures from several people that went, and I was still a little hesitant until Kendall Vinsant told me "Yes, Go".  So off we went with a couple of cousins in tow down to Montgomery.  The price tag was a little pricey, but you definitely get the experience you can't get anywhere else like this.  We bought two buckets of feed and extra buckets for all the kids to share and have fun feeding.  We were a little overwhelmed at the beginning as many of the animals stay right at the beginning of the trail as they know you haven't gotten to the zebras yet, and the nasty looking cow things are still cute.  They are cute until they get in your bucket and leave a trail of saliva all the way from your window seal down to the car door handle...inside the car!  Yuck.  

Beyond that point, things were a lot better and more spread out.  We saw plenty of llamas, and gazelles, cow/bull-like things, camels and zebras.  They only let the Lions out on Tuesdays, so we were OK with this being a Friday.  My driver position was fun listening to 1 part Magan screaming, 1 part kids laughing, and 1 part trying to stay cool with random animals giving me strange looks way inside my bubble for random Earthly beings.  The zebra actually took the bowl of food away from Davis at one time, and he reached way out of the window, grabbed it, and pulled it away from the zebra.  

After one tour of the Safari Park, we stopped at the petting zoo and then a really cool experience to feed the giraffes.  What was unique in all of this was NO zookeepers, just here you go, feed and pet this giraffe.     Also at the petting zoo, Sam will remember the goat walking all over a pig, and the pig grunting until it finally tried to bite that goat for walking all over him.  After our visit to the petting zoo, we bought one more bucket of food and headed back into the safari park one more time.  The kids rearranged seats to get some different experiences.  And this time was much faster as I whipped out van past all those people that didn't know about those nasty looking cow things...they were still learning.  

So what was the favorite?  Ruby loved the camels, and just giggled as they ate right out of her hand.  Mom, Belle and Stella loved the zebras, Mom probably loved them a lot more that was zebraly possible.  Sam thought it was pretty cool to pet Buffalo.  Davis and Eli had a blast trying to pet everything, but the most fun thing to watch them try and pet was the ostrich and emus....haha...I think they both finally pet one...but those things just have some crazy eyes.  And for me...I still think feeding a giraffe is pretty cool, and while I did not get a chance to do that as I am the dad, and just get to hand lettuce to children so they get the fun experience, those guys are probably the coolest thing to see up close like this.  

After a quick lunch visit to Arby's where we ordered as the lady said "A big bunch of sliders", we later stopped at Peach Park.  As we pulled in, Magan got the kids in a picture with the peach, but we started hearing some thunder.  Now we knew that Ruby has recently been scared of storms, but were not thinking about it at the time.  Then as all were in line for ice cream, I looked down and saw Ruby with what I would easily translate as "puke-face" and I grabbed her quickly and took off towards the bathroom.  Now, anyone familiar with these blogs know that puke is a pretty normal occurence on trips for us, and just randomly shows up...in church, on the road, at a theme park.  But in a COVID-19 society, the looks you get are a little beyond the typically looks you get so I was trying to run her as quickly as I could to avoid "a situation", and when we turned the corner to the outdoor section that leads to the bathroom, I heard the gurgling, so my hand naturally went to catch the projectile mess that came out.  Luckily we had some pretty good solid material, and nothing began dripping thru my fingers like the previous church, road, theme park situations.  We took a break at this outdoor area where I could thro the first section of puke then I grabbed her and took her into the bathroom.  There she told me she was all better...and looking at her pukeface, I said not yet, you are not.  And right again, because here came round 2.  But after that, she was fine, she did not want any ice cream, but her mom got her the sucker she is holding in the picture below.  So a great day with the animals, followed by an adventurous time at  Peach Park (Oh, I forgot to mention my hitting the largest holes in the parking lot on our way in...haha).  What a fun day!
















































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