Warning: Picture overload. If you know me and the kids and how much we love animals, then you’ll know that the 30+ pictures below show great restraint on my part.
When my sister and I were kids, summers meant one thing: a trip to Six Flags/Great Adventure with my Dad and friends. We’d leave the house super-early to make sure we were at the park gate when they opened, and spend the entire day riding the rides, doing the loop-de-loops and sustaining ourselves with hot dogs and sodas. ‘Tis just the type of adventure that cherished memories are made from. Of course now that I’m a full-fledged grown-up and pretty chicken-sh!t about rides, I no longer do anything that goes upside down, super fast, defies the laws of gravity or vows to make me sick.
Although the safari has been there seemingly forever, I have never been. The kids actually went last year with The Ex, but after our visit this weekend, I think it’s safe to say they’d go again and again. So would I. It was on my Summer Bucket List last year, but we never made it. This summer, I was determined.
Billed as the largest drive-thru safari in the US, it’s four-and-a-half miles of jungle goodness. You pay per person ($21), and can drive at your own pace. It tickled me to see the giraffes and bears just ambling up to the cars like it was a completely normal occurrence. Why of course the giraffe is eating off the top of my car, why wouldn’t he be?
We entered the safari with six pictures on my camera card. Nick checked when we left, and the total was up to 511. Yeah, we took a few pictures. On the way home, we talked about our favorite parts and we all agreed: the giraffes, the bear cubs and the baboons. I totally just typed baboobs there first. Oops.
Love this photo because it reminds me of one of Madeline’s favorite books, Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree, and of course, her nickname, Monkey. Even if these are baboons.
We could have watched these bear cubs for hours. They alternated between playing with huge sticks and logs and cleaning in between their toes. Too cute.
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