A Day Away

In a moment of spontaneity Friday night, we decided to go away for the day on Saturday. We decided to visit a safari type place a couple hours away and then stay overnight at a hotel in the area. (Ron had some hotel points from his recent business trips, so the hotel was free.) Since we didn't make these plans until around 11:30 Friday night, the kids didn't know about the trip and were pleasantly surprised when they woke up Saturday morning. What a wonderful trip it turned out to be!!

We had a nice time at the animal place. They had a lot of animals that we don't have at our zoo, so that part was interesting. It was a big open area though, so some of the animals weren't close enough to see well without binoculars (which we forgot to bring). Also, the names of the animals weren't written down anywhere for us to see, so it was hard for me to remember what everything was called. Half the time I couldn't understand what the tourguide called the animals. The tour was a couple hours long, but it was divided among three different stops. The kids were really well behaved and seemed to enjoy themselves. There was also a butterfly garden by the parking lot. Danielle was really interested in that.

We saw the baby birds (above) while waiting in line to buy our tickets. The mommy was busy feeding them and had just flown away to get more food.

The sign pictured below was on the cheetah & wild dog enclosures.

After the safari place & a late lunch, we checked into the hotel and went swimming for a couple hours. It gave the kids a chance to show Ron what they learned in swimming lessons this week. There was a lot of splashing and laughing.

Around dinner time we drove to a nearby state park and went fishing for a little while. (We saw a doe and her fawns on the way.) It was the first time the kids have fished with live worms. Tyler hooked his own fish. He did a great job.



(We fed some giant catfish at the animal place, so he had catfish on his mind.) I thought it was funny how much he "struggled" compared to how small the fish was and how surprised he was that it was actually a fish. (What else would it have been??) Ron hooked one for Danielle to reel in. We had a really good time fishing and saw a beautiful sunset on the way back to the hotel.

After we went back to the hotel, I took the kids swimming again while Ron picked up dinner. We slept late, had a big lunch, and returned by early afternoon to get back to reality. We were far enough away to actually feel like we were on vacation for a minute, and it was a wonderful day away.