Monday, February 27, 2012

Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari



This post is LONG overdue, we went here in June 2010 and I meant to post about it then, even saved it as a draft and really thought that I HAD posted it...sigh.  I was telling a friend about the Wild Animal Safari Park the other day and said it was on my blog and then when I went to check I realized that it wasn't!  So while it is a bit late you know the saying...better late than never ;p

We had heard about the Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari and decided to take a day trip and go check it out, plus we had free tickets from the Deplayment program so we didn't want to let those go to waste!  Pine Mountain, GA is about 2 hours from where we are.

I would HIGHLY recommend that you rent one of the Safari Vans instead of driving your own vehicle through, you get mobbed and slobbed on by all the animals, it's quite gross!  Notice the sign at the entrance (photo above) says Enter At Your Own Risk, LOL!  The van rental was only $12 and well worth it, although it could've had AC that worked...


Bea all decked out for the Safari ride


Us with our Safari Rental Van


Notice the lack of windows and the abundance of saftey bars


Mr. B ready to drive through the wild safari


The kids all ready with their food to feed the animals


This is what it looks like as you enter the park


The giraffe was quick to hurry over and check for goodies


Never been this close up to a giraffe before!


He wasted no time sending his purple tongue in to grab food from the kids


This is why you can't leave the windows without bars down, the animals have NO respect for personal space, LOL



Look at this cute fellow


The kids were excited to see him walking our way


And he was ready to gobble up some treats


Even this guy came by to say hello


This guy proceeded to slobber all over Mr. B's pants


Notice the towel now on his lap to mop up the slobber?!  This guy was hungry and when Mr. B did not give him a treat


he told him just how he felt about that



I could not/would not keep my window down, every time I tried something like this would happen...and that was just a little too close for comfort for me


Who knew their tongues could curl like that?!


As you can see this car exiting is still surrounded by animals


Then we headed over to the small zoo & petting area


Bea 


Bubby


Boo petting the baby goats


And after all that fun it was time to eat and Boo just had to get a picture taken in this booth at Mc Donald's


We had a great time and it was certainly a unique experience!







posted by Mrs. B @ 6:00 AM 0 Comments

Friday, February 24, 2012

Birmingham Yummy Eats

After our trip to Vulcan park and the other interesting sites around we were hungry and ready to eat!  Despite living in a somewhat large area, I often feel as though it has 'small town' restaurants and shopping.  Thankfully we got to branch out and eat at two new places for the first time.  Sure while it's not like eating at Cheese Roll in Misawa, Japan or Kaffe Duce in Keflavik, Iceland it was a great treat from the 'norm'


We ate at P. F. Chang's which was delicious!  Too bad it's so far away from us to eat there often...well maybe that is a good thing ;)

Then we headed for dessert...as all our friends know desserts and tasty treats are a MUST on any trip we take...


so we decided to give The Cheesecake Factory a try and it did not disappoint!



Bubby's Godiva Brownie Sundae, I should've took a pic of his face when they brought it out!


Our Red Velvet Cheesecake, AMAZING


Boo's Chocolate milkshake


And Bea sipped a tropical smoothie with Mr. B





And of course it wouldn't be complete without Mr. B's brain freeze, LOL!!

And we just HAD to stop by the local Apple store where I drooled over the Mac books that I one day hope to own.  Don't get me wrong I LOVE my iMac but I'd also like a portable Mac as well :)








posted by Mrs. B @ 6:00 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Peanut Depot & Other Interesting Sites in Birmingham, Alabama



After our trip to Vulcan park we headed to the Peanut Depot, located only 10 minutes away.  Turning onto Morris Ave was like turning back in time driving on the cobblestone street, it was quite a treat!



We wanted to check out the tasty peanuts raved about in attractions books and websites and the kids were excited to feed the pigeons.



We checked out the antique roasting machines and sampled all of the peanuts





We bought Cajun, Salted, and Natural peanuts.  Mr. B & Bubby liked the Cajun and the rest of us liked the salted, we fed the natural ones to the birds :)




One flew right into Bubby's hair and caused quite a commotion




Bubby was determined to have them eat a peanut off his leg


They got startled and flew away, but it wasn't long before they were headed back looking for peanuts


While we were at the Vulcan Mr. B seen this book called Alabama Curiosities, 2nd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series)
 in the gift shop and I just had to have it, LOL! After flipping through I seen a few places we've already seen (Gravity Hill, ect) and thought that we should check out some of the Birmingham ones since we were in the area


Boo found the Heaviest Corner on Earth on our walk down the street!  It's at the corner of 20th St N & First Ave N





Then we headed to take some photos of the Quinlan Castle on 9th Ave S & 21st St S




And we had to stop by the Storyteller Fountain in Five Points and snap a few photos



The Storyteller


Making a wish



I look forward to checking out many other places listed in the book, it's a fun and neat way to see things that we might have otherwise 'missed' or not known about






posted by Mrs. B @ 6:00 AM 0 Comments