safari park

 We used an app (road trippers) to see if there were any fun things for Elinor to do on our way to Knoxville. This app is awesome and I know we totally use it all the time. About halfway there a place came up in Natural Bridge, VA called Virginia Safari Park. There is a zoo and a drive through safari. We didn't realize at first that both were included in the price which was awesome. We also didn't realize the zoo part was that big. All we could see when we first pulled in was the goats and a few cages. It went back pretty far and there was even a feeding station for Giraffes. Too bad the giraffes were all down the hill and too far to feed.

She was so excited...

 So excited!

 I forget what they are looking at in here but there were multiple cages  with birds, reptiles and monkeys. 

 mama kangaroo and her joey. You can see legs and a tail hanging out of her pouch

 They were sleeping and Dave "HaKuna Matata" at them and this guy jumped up and came to the fence.

I wasn't sure if Elinor could go through without being in her carseat. I saw other people doing it but was nervous. I asked a worked and she said it's no problem but some of the animals do get aggressive trying to get food. She sat in my lap in the front (we were barely going 5mph the whole time).

 right away I realized what the worker meant. After this I didn't try to feed any. I put the bucket in the middle and some of them would stick their head all the way in to reach it. I made Dave keep it in his lap and kept my window up most the time. 

The car infront of us

 This zebra was sweet but the one on Dave's side was a jerk! He tried stealing the whole bucket of food. He started to roll the window up so the zebra would back away but instead he bit the turn signal, turning it on. When Dave finally got his window up the zebra head butted the side of the car and the slammed his body into it. 

 lazy buffalos and a lazy baby

 We didn't roll the windows down at all for these guys. They just looked mean

and some phone pictures

Japan 3

It was supposed to rain all day again. We headed towards the zoo hoping it wouldn't be too bad. If it got worse we were going to head to a nearby museum. The zoo wasn't far from our hotel and the rain ended up not being so bad. We missed some of it while we were in the reptile house and again when we were eating a snack under a big umbrella. We put the camera away for half of our visit though so it wouldn't get wet.

 When you order soymilk in your drink at starbucks they give you a card that says soy on it. You hand it to them at the end of the line and they give you your drink with a soymilk sticker on it. So many times I've been nervous they didn't hear me when I say soy. I like this system better!

 In the Ueno park

 At the zoo in the reptile house

 passed out baby

 She finally woke up when we went back outside

 This guy on the right we thought was fake. He was huge! He was 4-5 ft and standing so still. We were looking in the cage to see what else was in there and Dave noticed it move and open its mouth. I forget what they were but I've never seen anything like it before. 

 We didn't bring the stroller because of the rain but regretted it quickly. We ended up renting a stroller from the zoo. 

 Sophie!

 Always my favorite the hippos

 kangaroo with her joey

 This family stopped to take pictures with Elinor

 petting zoo

On the walk back it started pouring. We walked to another place Dave found on HappyCow but it wasn't open for another 30min. We had saw a starbucks so went there to get a warm drink and wait. While we were waiting, Elinor was sleeping and we were each posting pictures from the day on instagram. At the same time we realized what day it was and that is was our 5 year anniversary. We laughed a lot, hugged and kissed our baby.