African Safari Wildlife Park

Haha! That picture cracks me up. ;-) I've never been quite that close to an alpaca before! He was almost touching my camera.

My sister in law, Kelly, invited Will and I to join her and my niece Cecilia for a visit to the Safari Park in Port Clinton on Saturday morning. Sophie was invited too, but I was pretty sure this would have terrified her and the logistics of us all fitting into one vehicle would have been difficult. So Craig took Sophie for the morning and got her down for an early nap to accommodate our afternoon plans.

Will was IN LOVE with this whole experience.

Llamas, alpacas, zebras, buffalo, antelope, deer, a giraffe... He was in heaven! The curvy drive through the park was lined with animals that walked right up to our car for us to feed them grain and carrots. Not a bad gig for these animals! But some of them looked like they could use a weight loss plan. ;-)

We let Will sit on the center counsel and Celia in Kelly's lap while we basically crawled along the path so that they could have a good view without being responsible for gently pushing the animals away if they got to close.

I love this guy's teeth and hair. ;-) Haha!

Um... whoa.

OMG. OMG. OMG.

That's what I was thinking when this huge head came poking into my window.

Ya... so we just rolled up our windows when this guy came strolling by. :) It's amazing how the animals can just tell when your windows are up and they just stay away.

Celia's main priority during our visit was messing with all the buttons in Kelly's car. :) We kept cracking each time we realized she was freezing us out with the thermostat while simultaneously cranking up our seat heat. Haha.

Aww... he's just a baby!

The zebras are so cool up close!

The giraffes were the grand finale... and they definitely ended our driving tour on a high note!

Probably my favorite picture of the day. The sky is so blue and he's looking right at me!

For what was probably the most exciting moment in his entire young life, Will stood up in the sun roof to reach up and feed the giraffe a carrot.

Crunching the carrot.

"Do you have anymore?"

Yep. That's a really, REALLY long giraffe tongue reaching down into our car. :)

Whoa.

I just love these next few...

Will had just touched the giraffe's tongue!

Haha.

Well, hello there!

Kelly was so thoughtful. She drove, she paid our admission and she even brought us a snack for afterward! Cheese and fruit - yum. Thank you so much, Kelly! We had so much fun!

After our driving tour and our snack, we walked through the foot path behind the cafe to see some more (smaller) animals.

I love lemurs almost as much as I love monkeys. They're so cute!

Kelly and Celia checking out some monkeys.

This guy was really putting on a show!

Will found a broken branch on the ground and said "Look, mommy, I'm a big-horned buffalo!"

We saw a white alligator...

And Will played gallant big cousin and explained... um... something to Celia.

This was such a fun trip! Next year, I'd definitely like to bring Sophie and the twins and see their reactions to this place too. ;)