Natural Bridge Cavern Wildlife Safari

My sister and brother-in-law took the day off for us to go to a Space Park that she had purchased tickets for on Groupon.  When we got there it was a house, some might call dilapidated.  It had been raining for a couple of days and the parking lot, some might call this a driveway, was muddy.  My mom and sister went in to see if this was the right place and if we still wanted to try to do this thing despite it's outward appearance.  Don't judge a book by it's cover, right?  Well, except this time the book was exactly like it's cover.  Turns out the "Space Park" was really someone's large backyard with a solar system to scale on a two mile walk.  Hmmm.  And to top it all off the trail was underwater.  So, on to plan B.

We decided to grab a bite to eat and then go to the Natural Bridge Safari.  It is a drive-thru safari, Texas style, with animals that you can feed from your car window.  You have to drive about 5 mph so you can take the kids out of the carseats and seatbelts.  Bobby woke up from his nap right as we were about to drive through.  We were in two cars, of course.  My dad drove our car with Hannah, Bobby, and Judah.  I let Bob sit up front with me.  Our car had all the staunch rule followers in it and the other car, well, it didn't have those kind of people.  We were behind them and saw them break several rules within the first few minutes.  No feeding the animals from your hands.  Keep all body parts inside the car.  You get the picture.

My Judah Budapest had a lot of fun.

They gave us a free bag of food to try to lure the animals to the car with, but when you dropped the pellets on the ground the animals were not interested at all.  Either you have to pay extra for the good food or the animals are just really used to being fed by hand and people breaking the rules.  The animals never ate the food we dropped, but many of them would just reach out and try to get it from your hand.  They had native Texas animals like deer, emu, and elk, plus a few more exotic kinds like zebras and giraffes.  

This little guy thought that standing up in the front seat was the coolest thing ever.

This ostrich was quite friendly/aggressive.  He stuck his head inside our car and started to peck my dad's arm until he gave him some food.  This is a shot of him trying out our sunroof as an entry point.

I love this shot, how you can see Bobby's face in the side mirror as he looks at the giraffe.

I blew this shot big time, but my computer is being stubborn and not letting me edit out my thumb.  I just love it because she looks so happy.

And this one too because she looks just like me.  I thought it was me when I was swiping through the pictures the first time.

My nephew was in the white SUV ahead of us and apparently did not like the ostriches at all and took to calling them "Peckers."  

After the drive-thru was finished we got out at the petting zoo.  They had a pond with ducks and a few cages with monkeys.  Then the kids could go in and pet the goats.  Poor goats!  They are always the ones stuck getting chased around by overzealous toddlers with brushes.

Genevieve is one of my true animal lovers.

My nephew may have been afraid of the ostriches, but he had no fear when it came to the goats.

Isaac enjoyed brushing the goats that were resting.

Bobby was in heaven.  He loves animals and was trying to pet them the whole time.  I had to carry him out kicking and screaming when everyone else had moved on and he wanted to move in with the goats.

Guess who was afraid of the goats and wouldn't even go in?  Judah stayed out with my sister who doesn't like dirty things, including most animals, much.

LOVE

Great picture, if not for Bob.

For most of the group pictures of the kids he screamed and ruined the pictures.  Eventually he figured out that we were not torturing him and it was just a quick picture.

It was a memorable part of our trip for the children for sure!