The Park

There are certain things that I can look back on and say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the action I took was most definitely not the smartest thing I've ever done.  Saturday will go down in as the Number 1 thing I probably should have thought through a little better.  You see, my husband likes to go out and be 'manly'... get dirty, find a new, uncharted corner of the world, climb something, etc.  So when he said we should go to a game park, my heart said yes because I love my husband, but my mind started racing in the various directions of how to successfully take a 9 month old on a day-safari and keep all parties happy.  So, we packed.  We packed the rice cakes, the sippy cup, the pear chunks, the cheese, the applesauce, the water (for us), the diapers, the three changes of cloths, the sunscreen, the hat, the three pacifiers (in case one is lost and one falls onto lion dung (I will not be sanitizing that any time soon!), the snacks for me, the fizzy pop for when I feel sick, the extra shirt to change into- just in case, and all the bottles we own as Em is now drinking only formula.  We got it all into the car and headed out at 8:12 am, not too shabby as we were hoping to leave by 8.  But the fact of the matter still remained that we were going, in our Subaru with two 13 year old and Em, into a game park with unpaved roads and places labeled "four-wheel drive only" with my husband driving a stick and (God bless him) he's sometimes not the nicest person to Tom (what we named the car) as he should be.  So, my dilemma was this: morning sickness with squeamish teens in a place that doesn't have a level spot for anything with a husband who desperately wants to go off-roading, but manages to stall the car no less than 4 times, and we've got tickets for the lion/cheetah/whatever animal feeding... Great combination!

 

Minus a few bumps and bruises, not to mention some sunburns, we managed to have a great time.  We saw all the animals we wanted and went into an amazing limestone and iron cave (thank you Prof Stanek for teaching me the difference between a stalactite and a stalagmite!).  Em got to play with lion cubs, although we soon found out the volunteer handler was more than a bit nervous when Em started 'patting' rather vigorously the cub's belly, thus waking him up!  Everyone had a good day and I enjoyed that Todd was able to see so many of the big animals that Africa has to offer (even the unwashed zebras!).