Theo has been hooked on Bison as his favorite animal since a trip we took last October. I thought that maybe it was dying out, but he still seems pretty excited about them. Naturally I was looking to see where we could spot Bison close to Chicago or near our new home, and less than 30 minutes from our house is a Wildlife Safari Park. I knew coming here this was going to be an add-on pass to our membership that we'd be getting, and I was eager to check it out with the kids.
Mason got some work done at home and worked out while I took the kids on what turned out to be a longer day than expected. We had lots of fun, but I was tired. Ha! When I showed up I didn't realize that I needed a separate pass to enter. The gentleman took my word that we'd bought the membership the day prior and let me enter without showing a receipt or the pass (which we've now received in the mail). I was thankful, although did offer to pay since I messed up.
The entrance area had a few cages with animals to check out, Bison statues, a prairie dog village, and an overlook to the Elk fields. The boys, Maximus especially liked the prairie dog village. They didn't really remember all the dakrats we use to encountered in Minot. At first I was disappointed that we weren't seeing any Elk as we drove through their area, but I had a feeling they'd be clustered together, and we'd see all the other cars stopping once they were spotted. Sure enough, that was exactly the case. The boys were really excited. Woodrow exclaimed, "he'd never seen an elk before"
and liked the really big antlers.
We passed through various areas with deer, pelicans, wetland birds, and more. We stopped midway through the safari to park and get out and walk to some different animal enclosures. The boys were "starving" at this point so I bought them each a bag of chips to tie them over since I wanted to walk some of the trails. They got to see cranes, eagles, a wolf, black bear, and we saw a turtle at frog leg. They also got to see chickens up close and pet some goats. Max was definitely a fan of the goats and was certainly fearless.
After walking around and getting a bit warm, we headed back to the car to check out the grande finale...the bison! Sure enough it was a decent herd gathered together. We looped around two times. There were more people at the park than I'd expected, but it was a Saturday, and like the zoo, I expect the number of locals and tourists are similar in number. There was even one baby bison, so that was a big hit among the three wise men.
I'm glad that we got some exploring in before the movers came. It was a
nice break over the weekend to get out and feel like we weren't in the
middle of the move. I hadn't been feeling well, so I decided detour to
an urgent care on the way home. They didn't find anything suspicious,
but gave me a steroid and some anti-nausea medicine. I've been feeling
mostly better, but some days are rougher with feelings of
lightheadedness and a fuzz in my head. The stress, lack of sleep,
eating out, and high temperatures haven't been helping, but I'm hoping
that this straightens out soon.
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