Wildlife Safari

One of my cousins got married in Roseburg over the weekend. We enjoyed our time and the setting at the Roseburg Country Club was so beautiful for their evening wedding. I don't get to see this part of the family a lot, but these are the cousins who are closest in age to me. Not only that but the mom and the eldest daughter are old house people just like me AND they both just bough new houses in Roseburg. One is a Lawrence Ellis designed Arts & Crafts style home and the other is a large Colonial Revival. I love house tours! Both have lots of plans to renovate so I'm glad I had an opportunity to see them in the early "before" stages. One thing that I particularly liked about the Colonial Revival was the dining room floor. The oak strip flooring was laid in a picture frame but the center was fir. I assume this was because they would have expected the center of the room to always have a carpet so why use good oak in a spot where it would never be seen. I have never seen this application before, but it is a clever way to economize with materials.
Since we were down there I suggested we go to Wildlife Safari which is only a few miles away in Wilbur, OR. I don't ever remember my parents taking me here as a kid, if they did I was very young. I'm not sure how much OUr Little Helper liked it, but Mr. W & I really had a great time. To start out the cost is per person, but our children are both still free. When we were purchasing our tickets the woman asked us if we were members of AAA, the zoo, etc. I asked, The Oregon Zoo? and she said yes, if I showed her my membership card they would extend a 50% discount! We were so excited, it turned out to be such a great deal!
And the animals get so close to your car. Right inside the gate we saw ostrich right next to the road. Then we passed a water shelter that had a heard of zebra including a baby zebra! It was so tiny and adorable! And the parent must not have liked our car being so close (we were there pretty early) so she escorted the baby zebra up the hill, but right in front of our car!! How awesome is that?
In the brown bear enclosure they were taking a nap inside a little shelter that was right next to the fence. Then as we drove a bit further we saw another one who was awake and swimming in the pond. Again we couldn't believe how close we were to the bears. We drove around the bear enclosure twice we enjoyed it so much.
We also saw two hump camels, which lead to us reciting the Everybody Poops book over and over again as we looked out for two hump poops. Just kidding! I saw a camel in Turkey, but I think it was only a single dromedary. The humps on these camels were crazy, I was amazed at how different the shapes could be. Not unlike women's breasts I guess.
We also enjoyed the Americas section in which we saw a herd of elk. A couple were on one side of the road at a water trough and the male walked across the road in front of us to join the rest of the herd. He had a very impressive rack on him and as he crossed Our Little Helper whispered, "She's amazing!" I am so in love with that kid!