Safari

This past weekend my friend Sarah and I took our kids to the African Safari Wildlife Park in Port Clinton, Ohio.  It was so much fun driving through the park and having animals come and greet us at the car windows, begging for treats.  Admission came with a large cup of feed, and we purchased a bag of carrots to feed them as we drive through.

The moment we got into the gates the llamas come up poking their cute wiskery noses into our windows looking for handouts.  They were gentle and very curious.  Next came the elk, who were bullies.  One stole my food cup, but a ranger got it back for me.  Then one elk took Ian's cup from him and in doing so nipped his finger.  Ian was fine, but it really scared him.  After that he rolled up his window and started playing the iPad.  Poor kid, missed out of some even cooler beasts to feed.

At one point Sarah tells me to look out my window and I turn my head to see a bison with his nose to my window.  He was HUGE!  I snapped a few pictures before rolling my window down to give him a carrot.  His head barely fit in my window but he popped his head in to say hi and take the carrot.  I thought that would be the highlight of the trip since he was so big and gentle but I was wrong.

After driving around all manner of short little deer (I can remember the kind they were) we exited the section where the animals roamed free and went on to driving past the enclosures of the more exotic animals.  We could get close enough to the zebras that we could have reached out to feed them, but Sarah didn't want to with her 15 month old son on her lap.  Then came the giraffes.  It become obvious to me that there was a section of fence lower a little way up in their enclosure, so I parked by that.  Two giraffes came right up and bent their amazingly long necks down to my window.

You have to understand that I have loved giraffes forever. I decorated Ian's nursery in giraffes and have wanted to feed one but have never managed to be able to at any zoos I have visited in the past.  But this time I had 3 carrots left so I was able to check feed a giraffe off my lift list.  I gave each one a carrot as they lowered their heads to my window.  One stuck it giant snout right into the window and I could barely breath I was so excited to have it RIGHT THERE!  If it wasn't against the rules I would have tried to pet him, be damned the danger, but I didn't want to have Ian see that I broke the rules.  Turned out that didn't matter, when I reached out with the final carrot it licked my hand as it took it from my feeding cup.  I know it probably sounds stupid, but getting licked my giraffe was the highlight of the trip for me!

After we finished the drive we went and looked around the rest of the park.  Then Ian had the highlight of his trip, riding a camel!  I thought for sure he would be to nervous to go through with it, but Ian marched right up and climbed on with no fear.

Enjoy some of my favorite pictures below, along with a video of Ian taking his camel ride.