Photo-A-Day #2575

Today Allison, Eva, Andrew, Mimi and I went to Lion Country Safari. This is a drive through safari that Allison and Eva went to on a previous visit. When they went the last time there were torrential rains once they got into the park portion of the safari. This trip however we had a nice warm day which was perfect for Eva to play on the Splashpad.

Entering the park you get a CD to play as you drive around. The CD gives you good information about all the animals that you will see as you drive through the park. There were a decent amount of animals including a large pride of lions. While most animals are free roaming and you have a decent look at them the lions are behind chain link (which is of course for safety) and so we can’t get a good shot of them at all. I’d love to be able to go through a place that had nice clear walls or something where you could see the animals better but they have to be insanely expensive. The ride through was nice, though. Eva sat up front on Mimi’s lap and Allison and Andrew sat in the back. Eva took a bunch of photos with one of my cameras until she got bored taking photos.

When the ride through was over there was a park with rides and other attractions. Much of the internal park is covered in the price of admission. Eva could play mini golf, carousel, dumbo rides, the ferris wheel and of course the very large splashpad. We arrived, had lunch and then explored the internal park. There was a decent carousel here and a few other fun attractions. One of the most fun things for me was feeding the lorikeets. These fun little birds are pretty friendly. At one point I had them on my head, shoulders and my hands. You can buy a small thimble of nectar to feed them but even without it you can get them to jump onto your fingers and then they’ll run up and down your arms.

We also spent a long time at the Splashpad play area. Eva got into her bathing suit and ran all over the place getting splashed and splashing everyone else. There were water guns, buckets of water that dumped down and fountains spraying up into the air. Eva had a great time and played there for an hour. We got to sit and relax. It was hot and I wished I had brought a swimsuit for myself too.

The last activity we did was feed the Giraffes. The Giraffes are so graceful up close. They are so huge but you get this sense of their gentleness too. Eva fed them a few leaves of romaine lettuce and got a big kick out of it.

We left Lion Country Safari and went to Del Ray again. This time we went to Cabana Del Ray for dinner. This is a delicious Cuban restaurant. We met Grandpa Dano and Stephen there too. We ate outside alongside the street. Eva charmed the heck out of one of the waitresses and the meal was excellent. It was sad that it was our last night in Florida.

After dinner Allison, Eva, Andrew and I went home. We put the kiddos down to bed to much crying from Eva. She didn’t want to leave and was upset that she wasn’t going to be able to say goodnight to Mimi and Grandpa Dano. We told her that she could say goodnight if she was still awake when they got home but she had to go to bed. She did get to see them before she fell asleep. Allison and I packed up the Kia Sorento and have that ready to go for first thing tomorrow morning.