Bayou Wildlife Safari

A few months ago, some friends were telling me about a wildlife safari that was pretty cool up in Alvin, which is only about 25-30 minutes away. We decided that during Jason's time off, we would take the boys. We got there when it opened, at 10, but there were a few huge buses of kids in front of us, so we had to wait for the second round. While waiting, the boys got to ride some horses (included in the admissions cost), and pet goats for a bit. They also have a giraffe that is in a fenced off area that you can walk right up to. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera when he was even closer to the boys, but this gives you an idea of how close they were able to go. (I'll warn you that this is a long post because we had SOOOOO many neat pictures!)

After a short wait, it was our turn to ride on the tram. If you see the tram behind us and the folks sitting in the red seats toward the front, that's where we were sitting in our tram.

You name any kind of unusual critter and they had it. This was an emu having a staring contest with Braeden and Carsen. I'm scared of those things... I don't like them... they're too intense for me. Jason tells me I've seen too many "Funniest Home Videos" clips where they peck at people's faces. Must be!

For $2.50, we were able to purchase a bucket of food to feed the animals. Many of them come right to the tram to feed, and some keep their distance and you have to throw the food to them. This guy was Buffalo Bill. He was HUGE, but amazingly tame. An interesting side note is that the only animals there that weren't tame were the zebras. I guess you can't tame a zebra.

Here's Braeden giving a go at feeding. You actually have to hold your bucket pretty tight because they jam their noses down in there pretty hard.

Here's Carsen: "You do it, Dad."

It was pretty cool because different animals were in different areas of the park. As the tram would approach, they would come running from the entire other end of the field over to us, just to see if we had any food left. I was pretty proud of myself for getting this photo of the bison because not only was he running pretty fast, the tram was moving, too.

It looked like he was going to ram right into us, but amazingly enough, he came gently to us and started eating out of our bucket. HE was HUGE, too!!!

It wouldn't be a Texas wildlife park without a Texas Longhorn, right? Here is one of them. Not sure if this is Thunder or Lightning? This one came from the front of the tram to the back and came right by us. I wasn't able to get a picture when he was right by us because I was too busy pulling the boys back in order to make sure they didn't get knocked out by those horns. The next one that came by, we were actually able to reach out and pet him.

Here are a few of the camels. They were pretty cool because the driver stopped for a while to let everyone feed them and they stick their long necks way in the tram looking for buckets of food.

Are we having fun yet, or what?

This next picture cracked me up! This ostrich ran alongside the tram for about 100 yards, right next to Jason! I still laugh just looking at it. Some of the animals know how to keep their heads in your bucket and run along side the moving tram as they continue to eat. It's pretty funny!

Here we are inside the shelter by the petting area.

And one last one... Gaven got a chance to peek at the goats for a bit.

I have to say, we had a blast! For any of you Galvestonians, I would recommend taking the time to take the kiddos in a heartbeat. As long as they don't mind a little slobber and a lot of animals who don't know what a personal bubble is, they're in great shape.

When we asked the boys what their favorite part was, they both said everything! When we asked Braeden what his favorite animal was, he said, "All of them." Carsen said, "I liked 2 of them." Which ones, Carse? "The big one and the little one." So there you have it!