Safari

Yesterday we went to a place we've been wanting to go to forever.......Lion Country Safari. It's about an hour north of me in a very rural area compared to where I live. It's a little on the expensive side (adults are $22), but we had an awesome coupon for yesterday that saved us $22, so yesterday we went. The biggest part of the attraction is the drive-thru safari, where you can see tons of animals up close and personal. In addition to that, there is a petting zoo (which wasn't much of a petting zoo), a little ride on train, a huge carousel, an mechanical elephant ride (kind of like the dumbo ride), a ferris wheel, some animal and bird feeding areas, and a splash area where the water splashes up from the ground. Well, due to the storm that was approaching, and this new lightning detection technology that's been implemented throughout much of south Florida , which detects lightning from up to 5 miles away and issues a warning, all of the rides and the splash area were closed. The park issues rain checks, so because the closings were due to inclement weather, we were able to get a rain check to come back (but it must be within the next 30 days). So, at least that was nice that we might be able to come back and do the other things we missed out on.

Grace doing her Flamingo impersonation

Nate, "Iss Dat?" (What's that)

Iss Dat?

Grace walking with her friend Avian

Playing in the water misters (they had these throughout the park)

Nate running around outside the splash park

Gracie-face

Tired Nate-dog

Ray and Grace driving through the Safari (Don't worry, the speed limit is only 8 mph)

The Safari part was really cool. Here is the list of animals that you might see along the Safari (the ones in bold print we actually did see, or should I say the ones I know we saw):

Brown Pelican, Fallow Deer, Brazilian Tapir, Aldabra Tortoise, Rhea, Llama, Impala, Greater Kudu, Aoudad, Gemsbok, Nile Lechwe, Nilgai, Blackbuck, Asiatic Water Buffalo, African Lion, Ostrich, Addra Gazelle, Mouflon, Eland, African Elephant, Wildebeest, Waterbuck, White-handed Gibbon, Grant's Zebra, Giraffe, Chimpanzee, and Southern White Rhinoceros.

African Elephant (the haziness here is due to heavy rain falling)

Asiatic Water Buffalo

Blackbuck

More Blackbuck

Brazilian Tapir

Gemsbok

Giraffe -This was actually taken during the walking part where there was a Giraffe feeding area.
This is also in the Giraffe feeding area. You can see how close he was to us.

This Giraffe was in the Safari part and was probably about 10 feet or so away from the car.

This particular Zebra is called Grant's Zebra.

Another view of Grant's Zebra

I believe this is a Greater Kudu (female).

I believe these are Impalas

More Impalas (except for the brown one, which is a Nile Lechwe)

Llamas

African Lion-Male

African Lion-Female

Mouflon

Mouflon

Nile Lechwe (the dark brown one)

Ostrich

Southern White Rhinoceros (see the rain falling?)

Rhino again

Waterbuck

Waterbuck again

Wildebeest

White-handed Gibbon

Not sure....John help!

Not sure again.....John?

Same one as the pic above, but now he's (she's) trying to hide