Happy Retirement Nana/African Lion Safari

At the beginning of August, my mother retired from her job at the County Clerk's Office. We wanted to do something special for her but couldn't think of a gift to buy so the boys and I decided that taking her on a "mini-vacation" would be the best idea. Keith was gone for the week for work so off we went!

We had found a "Safari Package" at a local hotel so we went up the day before and stayed over. The boys love staying in hotels, especially when there is an indoor and an outdoor pool. They swam for a while, we enjoyed a dinner out and some shopping, and then the boys went back into the pool until they were sufficiently "pruned" and then got them in bed so we could get an early start the next morning.

African Lion Safari was AWESOME! If you can go there sometime I strongly recommend it. The boys just love seeing the animals without them being behind bars. Whenever we go to a zoo it seems like the animals are too far away to see, or they're sleeping in their cages, or they're being fed, or whatever....and it's really disappointing to the kids that they can't see them. I love that at African Lion Safari they are running around and interacting with other animals, not in a tiny little cage by themselves.

We did the bus tour as I didn't want to drive my car through and risk losing a windshield wiper or having monkey pee running down my windows, though that is the sort of thing that would provide the boys hours of enjoyment! We do enjoy watching the monkeys on everyone else's cars though! You see so many animals while driving through, it's really incredible.

Our other favorite part is seeing the elephant bathing time. They have the elephants (about 6 of them) walk through the park in a line, holding each other's tails, and they go to the lake and play in the water for a while. It is so fun to watch! The baby elephants were especially adorable.

They have lots of other things to do also. There's a boat ride where you go around islands that have different monkeys living on them. A train ride where you see birds, turtles, reindeer, llamas, and a bunch of other animals. There are different shows to go to: the parrot show, birds of prey show, and an elephant round-up show (our favorite!). You can even pay $5 and go for an elephant ride, something I was unable to convince the boys to do! They did love the petting zoo and I think they would love nothing more than to have a pet alpaca or a goat! The baby goats were so cute and I think the boys would have played with them all day long. At one point a guy was walking around the park with an anteater and he put it on the ground so the boys could see it.

The elephant round-up show was especially neat. The elephants did lots of tricks and fun things and then at the end you can pet the elephants. You don't *really* realize how big and powerful these creatures are until you're standing right next to one. I'm still amazed that they let people touch them and get so close to them there....what if one was having a bad day and decided they didn't want to be touched?? Yikes! But fortunately they were in a good mood that day! During the elephant show they even paint t-shirts that are sold in the gift shop. Of course, Connor had to have one. It's pretty cool, I must admit!

At the end of a long day the boys were happy to go and play in the waterpark there. Nana and I were glad to just sit and relax! It was a great time but very tiring!!