Thursday, August 27, 2009

Birthday

Warning: lots and lots of pictures to follow:

For those of you who don't know, my birthday was yesterday. My hubby and I took the day off work and ventured to a little place a couple hours from the house. It's called Silver Springs "natures theme park" and I recommend seeing it if you are ever in the area.

The first exhibits we checked out were the gators. Being in Florida, there are ALWAYS gators to be seen.
They are known for being one of the few places that house albino gators, which are VERY rare.
And they have cute baby gators.
And big UGLY ones too.

Next we took one of their glass bottom boat rides into the wilderness. They have alot of historic info there and it's was very interesting to learn about the history.
and to see lots of nature.


After that boat ride we saw a few more animals
Next we hopped on the (what they claim to be) the world's famous glass bottom boats

and I have to admit, it was really amazing. The water was so perfectly clear you could see down so far. At one point we were 84 feet above the springs and we could see the bottom without problem.
Then to the air lift, where you can see the entire park from the air. I got to be honest, this ride made me a little nervous.
And then, off to the petting zoo :).
Baby the donkey wasn't too sure of me until I got my arm, once she warmed up to me she LOVED having her ears scratched.
Jason feed an Emu, they freak me out.
This is what I am laughing at:

One last boat ride of the day took us 30 minutes into the beautiful national forest. This is were many movies and TV shows have been filmed including the original Tarzan and Smokey and the Bandit.

We stopped at a animal rehab facility and met sugar. A screech owl who has lost a wing.
Next we got to a very populated area. Populated with what you ask, MONKIES. Apparently in the 50's some crazy guy wanted a bunch of pet monkeys. HE bought them and put them on and island in the middle of this area thinking they would live there forever. Well, monkies swim and mate. Now there are hundreds to thousands or monkies surrounding the area and have been found as far as two hours away.
Before leaving we visited the rest of the animals:
and I got to feed a giraffe.


We got some ice cream and hit the road.

Thanks for sharing in the photos from my day.

5 comments:

Christie Cottage said...

What a wonderful time! Happy belated birthday!

http://christiecottage.blogspot.com

Dionne said...

Happy Birthday!

How sweet of your husbo to take off work to spend the day with you.

I love the giraffe, and wow, that's a lot of gators! It looks like such a great place to spend the day!

Anonymous said...

WOW, your photographs are awesome! What a great day.

Tatiana said...

It looks like your birthday was lots of fun! I came across your blog not too long ago and found your creativity very inspiring, this is why I left you a little award on my blog :)

Steph said...

OMG I used to go there when I was a kid! I grew up in FL