|
Slept in late and then decided that we
would visit Silver Springs. My brother, Derek, used to work at the Zoo/theme
park there - so he was able to get us all free passes for the day!
Both Derek and his girlfriend, Tonya are animal lovers at heart. We
got to visit not only with them, but their pets. Bandy and Onyx - two
big, black German Shepards. (Derek's) Ducoty, a minature greyhound
(Tonya's), four cats, a couple turtles and several lizards. It's a
mini-zoo right there in the house, and the girls (a bit leary around dogs)
got used to them fairly quickly. Derek and Tonya do a great job of
training the animals - the dogs listen much better than the girls do! :-)
It was hotter today, back to what we expected as August heat. The
park was only about 15 minutes from Derek's house, and was not too crowded.
We had a very good time walking through the park and visiting all
the animals. It had been over 4 years since Derek worked there, but
he could still remember many of the animals from his time there. It
was a cool perk to know their names and hear a bit of history.
They have an amazing number of alligators of all varieties. Lots
of birds, various deer, some beautiful Puma and bears including a couple
huge Grizzly bears. There is a Jungle Cruise which was great and an
even more interesting Glass Bottom Boat tour through Silver Springs. The
water is crystal clear and it was a great tour.
There was a male and female giraffe that were very social, and would come
over and eat right out of your hand. Brinn was quite excited at the
chance to feed them and we got a good shot of her feeding the male.
|
|
