So, we never got a vacation this year, and because we never got a vacation, we have snatched the moments of vacation goodness wherever we can.

In southern Oklahoma is a wild life park called Arbuckle Wilderness. It costs an arm and a leg, but you can drive through the park with cups of feed, sold at the park office, to feed all the wild animals. It has been around since I was a kid and I have fond memories of freaking out in the backseat of a buick while a camel tried to climb into the car through the sunroof. Some animals, such as the timberwolves and the white tiger, are kept behind a fence. But most are not. These animals are accustomed to being fed from car windows; therefore, they often stick their heads all the way in your vehicle.

Yesterday, we took the kids. It was hilarious, and my biggest regret was not filming it. Thankfully, Traci and Dustin filmed their trip two days before and posted it on YouTube (I don’t know them, their’s was the first video to come up after searching YouTube). Please click through to that link and watch the video. It’s worth the time and it pretty much sums up our experience–except that Traci and Dustin got to feed a few more species than we did. They must have gone through earlier in the day, when the animals were still hungry. We also got trapped by the ostriches for a while longer than Traci and Dustin. We had one on each side of the van darting their heads inside while we tried to get past and our kids freaked the EFF out. We couldn’t roll up our windows for fear of catching their necks with their heads still inside the car.

My kids now hate Ostriches. Rightly so. They are scarey mother-effers.

But at least they weren’t as gross as the Giraffe chewing its cud.

You haven’t lived until you have had Giraffe slobber dripped all over you.

P.S. My 7 year old took that picture of the giraffe with his dad’s SLR camera.

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