Wednesday, June 24, 2009

African Lions Safari

This past Friday the kids from school went on their much anticipated Year-End School Trip. This year it was Rebecca's turn to have her mom tag along ... really I'm just the knapsack carrier :) This year her class went to African Lions Safari.

After a week of cool and rainy weather we had a welcome surprise of a nice mostly sunny day. The day started off cloudy and cool, but by time we got there the sun was starting to peak out and before long it was an absolutely gorgeous day. By mid-afternoon the sun was almost getting a bit too hot ... but none of us would dare complain after expecting rain all day.

We had a lovely day. We manage to see all the shows and go on all the "rides" (a bus, train and boat ride to see various animals) as well as spend some time at the waterpark (no pictures of that). The kids had tons of fun and really enjoyed themselves.

Our group and playing in the play area. Hilarious how we were all commenting on "when we were kids". We all seem to remember when we were kids and the groups were huge. We were trying to figure out why more parents didn't go with back then. Needless to say the most any of us had in our group was three kids, a nice small easy size.










And the rest is pictures of animals. We seen lots of animals, but here's some of the better pictures or better looking animals ;)

At the Elephant Show.
Left: Picking up her trainer who was laying on the ground.
Right: Painting a picture. You can purchase shirts in the gift shop that the elephants had painted (smeared paint spots on)











The Elephants give there finally good-bye.











At the Bird Show - it was hard to get good pictures of what they were doing, but this one was pretty neat:

Riding a two-wheeler bike










More animal pictures:

Pink Flamingo's - I love how their necks curve up and down when they're drinking
A Deer with her just born fawn











Can't visit African Lions Safari without some pictures of the lions ...











....although really it's the baboons that are the most interesting to the kids. The bus stopped extra long at this section for them to take in all the fun the baboons were having. Shortly after we left a truck went into that area and within a minute had a back full of baboons. Before you enter the next section of the park a park warden will check to make sure no baboons are hiding out on your vehicle somewhere. (I guess I should further explain here that at the Safari there is a large section where you do a drive-thru tour. You can take this tour on one of their buses, or if you're not afraid of getting some scratches or losing an ornament or two you can drive your own vehicle through. I definitely recommend taking the bus as the tour guide provides a mountain of information making it very interesting ... the kids are too busy talking and watching the animals, but the parents enjoying learning about the animals)











A rhinoceros and bison (which we more commonly call Buffalo, but this is incorrect as in American we have Bison not buffalo. Although I can't remember the detailed differences between the two one thing is that the buffalo is native to Africa and Asia)











This is one of those "you had to be there" pictures. All the zebra's came wandering over towards the bus to check us out. Guess they must have short vision or something because as soon as they got close enough they must have realized it was just that bus again as they all turned around about the same time and then stood there with their buts facing us.











And last but not least were the giraffe's. The kids loved how the one came marching over to the bus to give it a good licking and chewing.














It was nice that African Lions Safari is not far from the school. This meant we had more time to spend at the park. We arrived back at school at 5pm, the same time as the other buses from the older grades arrived back at school after spending the day at Ontario Place, but they had sat in traffic for almost two hours. Marietta had a good day at Ontario Place also, although she was somewhat disappointed that they did very few things and didn't see half the park but had to spend a lot of time at the waterpark ... she would have liked to try a few more rides and stuff. Part of the problem here of course is that it takes longer to get there and back , so their day is short ... it is also a popular place and so the lines are long and they have to wait quite a while each time. But overall she also had a good day.
We enjoyed the barbeque at school before we all went home and crashed nice and early.

1 comment:

amymom24 said...

Glad you had a great time. We are going next week for M&R's birthday. Can't wait!