I had some days off work this week. On Friday - I checked in to see if Trent, Ethan and Maddie wanted to have a play date with me. Ethan and Maddie were heading to their dad's that afternoon but Trent was in for some adventure. About an hour later we were on the road headed to Southern Oregon for an overnight play date and an animal adventure awaited us in the morning. The Wildlife Safari in Winston, OR is about 3 hours away from Portland and so worth the drive! On the way down, Trent and I talked about all sorts of things. He cracks me up. About 2 hours into the drive, he was ready to just be there and played games on my iPhone the rest of the way. It gave me time to just sing along to my iPod and drive. Lots of traffic getting out of Portland and a few rest stop breaks later, we arrived at our hotel in Roseburg, OR.
We checked into our hotel and were greeted with this lovely view:
Then we went to dinner (Mexican food! - it's a wonder we're related right?). We shared Nachos and this kid was getting after those things. He was also saying "adios amigos" and "hola" to our waiter. I taught him to say "Si, gracias" the next time the waiter asked if everything was good. Trent said it and then giggled like a mad man when the waiter replied back "de nada". ha ha.
After dinner we went back to the hotel and swam and hot tubbed until it was time to get some sleep for our big adventure the next day. The park opened at 9, so we got to wake up leisurely and take our time driving the next 7 miles to the park.
We arrived at the park around 9:30am. I'm actually glad that we got there early. In order to sign up for things like the Elephant and Giraffe encounters, they only do some of those one time per day and they fill up. Trent picked up his binoculars from the gift shop as his prize and we headed out to drive through the park. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive through the park. Trent kept calling the place a zoo-fari. Like zoo and safari all mashed together. While some exhibits are behind gates that you could still drive up really close to (bears, tigers, hippos), some animals are just wandering around free. We saw Rhino wandering around and had to stop the car to wait for buffalo and giraffe to cross the street. How weird is that? It was amazing, to say the least.
Trent rode a camel named Frank. He honestly LOVED that. If you paid a little extra, you could get a "driver's license" that had their picture on it and they could wear it around their neck on a lanyard. He thought this whole thing was pretty great.
And we also fed the elephant named Alice. She also played the harmonica and painted a picture for us as well. It was so weird to pet an elephant. They have these really thick coarse hairs on their nose they use to sense things. Honestly I was staring at this giant animal, and petting it, but those hairs seemed rubbery and fake. It was so odd. Very cool. Trent was in love with Alice. He wanted to buy one of her pictures from the gift shop ($40). And while I love to indulge my nephew, I knew it would not be hung in his house - so it seemed slightly wasteful. He talked about her painting for awhile after.
We also fed and learned about a giraffe named something African, I couldn't understand. That is Trent's head after he'd just fed him a piece of lettuce. The 3rd time he fed the giraffe he only had a tiny piece of lettuce and the giraffe stuck out his tongue and licked most of his hand. Trent said it felt bumpy like a cat tongue. How cool to know what a giraffe's tongue feels like?
What a great trip! As we were leaving the park, Trent told me that he thought it was so much fun! He said he actually thought it was going to be kind of boring and it wasn't. He said that if you think something is going to be boring the first time, then it won't be because you haven't made something more exciting than it is. Oh my logical, skeptical boy. No wonder we get along so well. I love my adventures with that munchkin! I can't wait for the next one!
We checked into our hotel and were greeted with this lovely view:
Trent deemed us "the luckiest"! and said he could just sit out on our deck and stare out at the river all night.
Then we went to dinner (Mexican food! - it's a wonder we're related right?). We shared Nachos and this kid was getting after those things. He was also saying "adios amigos" and "hola" to our waiter. I taught him to say "Si, gracias" the next time the waiter asked if everything was good. Trent said it and then giggled like a mad man when the waiter replied back "de nada". ha ha. After dinner we went back to the hotel and swam and hot tubbed until it was time to get some sleep for our big adventure the next day. The park opened at 9, so we got to wake up leisurely and take our time driving the next 7 miles to the park.
We arrived at the park around 9:30am. I'm actually glad that we got there early. In order to sign up for things like the Elephant and Giraffe encounters, they only do some of those one time per day and they fill up. Trent picked up his binoculars from the gift shop as his prize and we headed out to drive through the park. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to drive through the park. Trent kept calling the place a zoo-fari. Like zoo and safari all mashed together. While some exhibits are behind gates that you could still drive up really close to (bears, tigers, hippos), some animals are just wandering around free. We saw Rhino wandering around and had to stop the car to wait for buffalo and giraffe to cross the street. How weird is that? It was amazing, to say the least.
We also fed and learned about a giraffe named something African, I couldn't understand. That is Trent's head after he'd just fed him a piece of lettuce. The 3rd time he fed the giraffe he only had a tiny piece of lettuce and the giraffe stuck out his tongue and licked most of his hand. Trent said it felt bumpy like a cat tongue. How cool to know what a giraffe's tongue feels like?
What a great trip! As we were leaving the park, Trent told me that he thought it was so much fun! He said he actually thought it was going to be kind of boring and it wasn't. He said that if you think something is going to be boring the first time, then it won't be because you haven't made something more exciting than it is. Oh my logical, skeptical boy. No wonder we get along so well. I love my adventures with that munchkin! I can't wait for the next one!
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