Sunday, March 17, 2013

Wildlife Safari

We've lived here almost ten years and have never visited one of the biggest family-friendly attractions in the area - the Gentry Wildness Safari/Drive Thru Zoo!  When I saw the forecast for 75 & sunny this weekend, I decided visiting Saturday would be the perfect family excursion.  We packed up around 10:30AM and headed out on the 30 minute drive.

It wasn't especially beautiful, and I have some reservations about the establishment (part of the reason we haven't gone before) but everyone with kids that I know has been and their kids love it.  So I put my reservations aside for Alli's enjoyment.  And man, did she enjoy it!

When we pulled in, the man taking money told us they had baby lions and baby giraffes in the barn, but warned that the baby lions might get cranky before too long.  So Ryan decided we would go to the petting area first and then hit the drive through portion later.

We saw peacocks, capybaras, goats, kangaroos, llamas, ponies, and camels - most of which Alli could pet or feed.  Along the way, we found the baby lions and actually got to go in the pen and pet them.  Ryan went in and sat on the hay bale, and one of the little ones actually jumped on the hay bale and crawled into his lap.  It was seriously the cutest thing.  And Alli got to pet a lynx (??) named Sheila.  She says that was her favorite part of the day.




















After going through all of the petting areas, we went through the drive through.  It was pretty neat - they had big cats, deer, yaks - all kinds of cool animals to see up close.  When we were almost done going through, the gas light came on in the car.  We sweated it, but we made it!  Thank goodness - we weren't stranded in the drive through safari.

Afterwards, we hosted a zoo at our house - three of Alli's friends came over to play!  We walked them down to the neighborhood playground to enjoy the gorgeous weather.  And after a very full day, Alli curled up on the couch for a movie.  It was a wonderful, gorgeous day, and I'm so happy we got to spend most of it outside!

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