Not Quite Idaho

We are on our second week of our 2 week fall break. Originally the kidlets and I were going to head up to Idaho, but Big J had a stomach bug 2 days before we were supposed to leave and taking sick kiddos to Niece’s house is a big No No.

Instead of doing nothing we decided to head up to northern Arizona and check out some cool things to see in our own state.

We started on Thursday and drove to Camp Verde to visit Out of Africa Wildlife Park.

We started our visit with an African Bush Safari and a visit with our favorite animal, Kebo the giraffe.

The last time we visited Big Daddy and Kebo had instant chemistry…and this visit wasn’t any different.

Big Daddy passed on his special relationship with Kebo to Big J.

He is a very, very friendly giraffe…who happens to really like carrots.

Here he is with our guide Chris. She was great and did an awesome job telling us about all the animals.

Also on the safari was Humphrey the camel. The Boyz liked the camel…no I mean REALLY liked the camel.

I am not sure how comfortable I am with the fact that they pimp out their animals for some measly carrots.

At least the other kidlets were a little more respectful to Humphrey and just gave him the carrots.

Some of the other animals on the safari included different types of antelopes…sorry I didn’t take notes and I can’t remember what type they were.

These guys were pretty cool looking. I really like the twist on their horns.

This group was pretty social even with 2 brand new babies in their midst.

Check out their feet…it looks like they are wearing white socks and sandals.

 

This lovely lady has an attitude problem. She broke her horn trying to kill a lion…through the chain link fence.

The lion was fine and she ended up losing one of her horns. Maybe she needs a set like her mate.

His horns are used to kill lions in the wild…and whatever else he wants.

This is a Watusi…but I never saw him dance.

And what self-respecting safari doesn’t have zebras?

These guys are pretty smart. They have trained the guides by “smiling” and they know the guides with throw them food.

So white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

They are black with white stripes. Or at least that’s what some guy said that shaved a zebra to find out. And really? Who is going to argue with some guy who has the time to shave a zebra?!?

And last, but not least, on the safari was Chili Pepper. Did you know that an ostrich can maintain a running speed of 30 mph for up to an hour…unfortunately after about 2 seconds they forgot what they were running from.

Here are the kidlets checking out some animals on the safari.

After the safari we headed to the Tiger Splash arena to see the tiger show.

I am not sure what was more impressive…

The tigers?

Or the trainers running around with them?

After Tiger Splash we had a little time to kill and thought we could visit some of the other animals. We made the slight mistake of getting on this guy’s tram.

It was the by far the fastest way to get from point A to point B.

He was kind enough to point out the animals that we were passing by…quickly passing by.

We found out he was hurrying so we would make it to the Snake show…how nice of him.

And guess who loved this show the most?

Wrong!

It was LaLa.

Big J was being helpful and carried our pack for a little while. I think he carried it off and still looked manly.

We walked around and saw some of the other animals.

The lions.

The tigers.

And bears.

Oh my.

Seriously? Like I’m going to pass that by?!?

They also have a rhino that is somewhat famous for his rescue story. It has something to do with the Ecco shoe guy. We really didn’t get a good look at him. I was lucky to get this shot of him as we were passing by.

We stopped by the hyenas, but didn’t stay long. They were VERY interested in LaLa and kept making a growling noise when she was around.

Maybe they thought she would make a sweet, little  treat?

Roo saw on the map that they had Capybaras and was so excited to see one…really not sure why. Well we didn’t see one, but we did see the sign.

At the end of the day the day the caretakers load up a truck full of raw meat and go around and feed the predators…and we humans follow along and take pictures.

When it is time to feed the male lion he is very vocal.

And he stayed at the fence to make sure the guys who brought his hunk of raw animal parts left before he would go and eat.

He is still making sure they aren’t coming back to try to steal his food.

And then everyone clamors back on the tram to the next hungry animal.

The thing I like about this zoo, and I am not sure zoo is the right word, but the people that work there really have a relationship with these animals. This girl was able to go in with this wild animal and show affection as well receive affection. I think that is why it is privately owned and doesn’t receive any grant money…because the people that work here are involved with the animals and know them by name and aren’t clinically detached.

It was a fun first day of our weekend.

Good bye Out of Africa.

And good bye Kebo.

And we headed on our way to Flagstaff.