Lion Country Safari

There is a "theme" park just down the road from our house. It is very different from most theme parks because it is a drive-thru safari. I get free admission there for my spouse and children, so Bryan and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to take Lorelei for a day. In late July we headed over to see if she would have as much fun as we thought she would. When we got to the park the woman selling tickets told us that she could sit in my lap and not in her car seat since the speed limit is like 2 miles an hour. I pulled her up to the front seat and we made our way into the park.

Lorelei decided early on that she should be the driver. (She only sat like this for a minute, then it was back to Mommy!) The lionesses were right next to the road, so we could see them up close. The Lions were all sleeping out in the middle of the field; too far for Lori to get a good view.

Here she is trying to see some animals on the other side of the path.

And then it's "Ohh Mommy look! Elephants!". On of the neatest parts was how close we got to the rhinos. They were only feet from our car:

Once we finished the drive, we headed into the park to go on some rides. Lorelei went on a carousel for the first time and fell in love. She must have rode it 6 times. Each turn she would alternate between Mommy and Daddy riding with her. Luckily the park was nearly empty when we were visiting so she never had to get off. First with Mommy:

And then with Daddy (Daddy took her on an animal that went up and down!):
Possibly my favorite part of the park is the Giraffe feeding area. We bought some cookies for them and let Lori feed the Giraffes. She was afraid of their tongues, so she wouldn't feed them herself, but she would giggle up a storm as she made Daddy feed them the special cookies.
As Lorelei befriended these Giraffes she decided to have a nice conversation with them. She crouched on the deck, stuck her face through the rails and was babbling to the giraffe. If he walked away to get a cookie from another person she would start shrieking at him to come back (which amazingly he did!). He would also bend down to look at her through the fence. It was so much fun to watch I could have stayed there all day.
After the giraffes we went to the splash park where Daddy and Lorelei went running through the water features. She was having so much fun she didn't want to leave. Alas, eventually Mommy gets tired of sitting in the sun and Daddy can't run anymore, so we had to move on.
We finished up the day by sharing an ice cream and then we headed for home. I think that our little girl very much enjoyed herself and we will be going back again soon!

<3,ZZ