Oliver and the Safari

 Last Friday, my dad took Trenton on a day-long fishing trip. Knowing I'd have the whole day with just Ollie, I decided I'd take him to the zoo. The plan was to board the bus and hang out in New York for the day, seeing the animals at the Central Park Zoo.

Then Irene came.  As did the mass exodus of traffic from Manhattan. And suddenly, sitting on a bus did not seem like a good idea.

So, we went to Great Adventure's safari instead.

 I let Ollie get out of his car seat and come up in the front with me (he thought that was very cool). He watched earnestly while the emu pecked at this car. He did NOT want the emu to peck at our car, though.

 The elephants were one of the highlights. He really, really wanted to see elephants.
The rhino was a treat. Walked right in front of us.

 And then there were the giraffes... This one here kept licking the minivan in front of us. Ollie smiled and laughed when he figured out what was going on.

 But as the van moved away, and the giraffe looked around for another 'treat', Oliver became scared and did NOT want the giraffe to lick our car.
No problem. Just snap a picture and move on...

 I forgot how tall giraffes really are.

 We did lots of waving at the animals. I set up the safari map on the dashboard of the car and Oliver made good use of it. By looking at the pictures and following the road path, he could predict what we'd see next.
"Lions!"

 Heck yeah, stay in your car. Not that they'd scale the fence...

I only put the windows down to take pictures. Like this one of the "pretty birds" below.

  

Oliver sweetly recited Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, singing to these cubs below.

 

 I'd heard that it is best to go to the safari in the morning in the summer, as the animals have been recently fed, and it is not hot enough that they're out seeking shelter or shade. We did get to see everything on the map.

 Ollie didn't believe that this was really a kangaroo. Because it was not jumping.

 

Afterwards, we hit the park for just a bit. He got to go on this horsey ride (just made the 36 inch cut-off!) and the carousel.

 

He remembered that the last time we were here (with Katie, earlier this summer), we'd seen some sea lions and other animals within the park. So we walked over there and spent some time watching these animals play.

Oliver on the Sky Ride from Sheryl K. on Vimeo.

He's still talking about this trip. :)