Virginia Safari Park

With my parents zooming off to Florida for vacation, Jeff and I both had the bug to get out and do something--some sort of mini-vacation. :) So, what to do???

While we were still living in Israel, I had seen an article in Southern Living magazine about the Virginia Safari Park. It looked interesting enough that I had cut it out and saved it in a notebook that I filled with future hopes and dreams. Well, after several years, today was the day for us to go there. And what an adventure we had!

We've been to great zoos before which we always enjoy. But this was different than anything we had experienced because you literally drive through the park with windows rolled-down (if desired), holding buckets of feed out for the animals to eat from. And eat, they do! Hungrily...greedily...trying to pull the buckets out of your hand...sticking their heads in the vehicle to see if there's more when you pull the bucket away. I've never been that close to many of these animals before! It was quite thrilling for the boys--and for Jeff and I as well. We definitely plan to go back, maybe when Jeff's mom comes out for a visit? Or maybe with my parents sometime?

Without hesitation, I give the park a big two thumbs up!

~ Jeff feeding llamas
~ the animals are so close that it's actually intimidating (in a good way!)...I finally worked up enough courage to roll down my window and stick my arm out with a bucket of feed
~ this mischievous fellow was trying to yank the bucket out of my hand...can you see his bottom jaw beneath the bottom of the bucket, with his teeth gripping and yanking the bucket?...in the side mirror, you can actually see a better view, if it's large enough...greedy little guy!
~ this llama was steaming up my window!
~ this one was trying to get inside...what nice lips you have, fine fellow!
~ oh, hello there, zebra...care to get a little closer?
~ this bison was actually using our side mirror to scratch his neck...we were a little nervous about rolling down the window with him so near, so this picture is taken through the glass, hence the reflection of Jeff's hand on the steering wheel which is superimposed on the bison's head!
~ I don't think I ever realized before just how BIG these bison are!...I was thinking (similar to the way Christin thought!) about how painful it would be to give birth to a bison...such a huge head! such massive shoulders!...I'm so glad I'm a woman and gave birth to human babies :)

By the way, for most of these pictures, we weren't using the camera to zoom in. On the contrary, I was often wishing that I could zoom OUT more than our camera allows, because the animals got so close it was actually hard to get a good picture!