Wildlife Ranch

One of the activities on my personal Summer Bucket List was to visit the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch.  We arrived close to opening time and got a glimpse of the baby twin giraffes - they were so sweet.  I wanted to do the drive through part of the ranch before it got too crowded.  We started out with the kids in their car seats, but they were having a hard time seeing the animals and throwing food out the window, so I let them move up to the front seat (I felt like they were safe as we were rolling along at a crawl and it wasn't too busy).  I think they were more excited about their freedom than they were about the animals.



Best Buds


Checking out the zebras


The zebra who wouldn't move - we were stuck for a couple of minutes waiting for it to move out of the road


All of the animals were fun to watch except the ostriches - I'd been warned that they are a little aggressive, so I rolled up the windows as soon as we got to their area to avoid having one stick its head into the van.  Yet, we still had one try to bite the rear view mirror.  That was the second most memorable part of the trip - and the part that Will still talks about a month and a half later.

The most memorable part was when I broke the van key.  Good times.  After driving through, I parked and let the kids out so we could go to the petting zoo and get a closer look at the giraffes.  I realized that I'd left a window rolled down, so I leaned across the passenger seat to turn the van on, slipped with my hand on the key in the ignition, and the remote just snapped off.  I got the van started again, and I was afraid to turn it off.  I loaded two tearful, disappointed kids back into the van (fortunately, they seemed to understand and calmed down quickly) and drove straight to the dealership.  They assured me that as long as I kept the pieces close together, it would still work, but ordered a key that I could pick up the next day.  Such a hassle (and so expensive - remember when a car key was just a key?), but it worked out, and we are planning to return once it gets a little cooler.  Definitely a memorable excursion!