Monday, August 07, 2006

Have YOU had a bison in your car?

Tai and I ran away from home for the weekend. It was terrific. We went to Natural Bridge, VA - a small town with a LOT to do.

We didn't actually go to THE Natural Bridge - the structure the town is named for. We didn't do the wax museum, the caverns, or the toy museum either. (We only had from 3:00 Saturday afternoon to about 4:30 Sunday afternoon to do this in, mind you.) We did hit Professor Cline's Haunted Monster Museum, but we were very unimpressed with it. It was no better than the haunted houses that pop up in small towns near Halloween. It was no more scary than being stuck in a small house with no lights. A shame, because I was expecting to enjoy it. Dinosaur Kingdom, located right outside the Monster Museum, was slightly better. We could see it, at least. That counts for something! We also saw Foamhenge, which was something...different.

The Natural Bridge Zoo was pretty great. We were able to PET a baby white tiger, and have our picture taken with her! We also got to hand feed the giraffes! (Giraffe tongues are long, slimey, and purple...and they reach through chain link fence quite easily.) Unlike many other zoos, the animals at this one appeared to be content, if not happy. There's nothing worse than watching caged animals pace around in circles bored out of their minds, and there was none of that here.

As awesome as that was, the Virginia Safari Park was oh so MUCH cooler. We had ostriches, zebras, camels, elk, emus, watusi, deer, llamas, and bison IN...OUR...CAR...WITH...US. I'm not kidding. They put their heads right in the windows (sometimes the sunroof) and joined us for tea. Er, uh, animal feed, anyway. They have a giraffe feeding station as well - where you can climb up to the giraffe's height to feed them crackers. It's so awesome!

The Safari Park is right along I-81, which happens to be the Interstate we'll have to take to pick up Perrin & Darcy next weekend. Guess where we'll be stopping on our way home? *grin*