During the long Labour Day weekend this year Marie and I had the opportunity to look after Amy and William while Phil and Fernanda were off in Mexico to attend a friend reunion. So what to do with two rambunctious kids for four days? Besides daily walks to the park down the road and running and biking with Ben a trip to Safari Parc, less than an hours drive away was in order! We had driven by this place half a dozen times in the past and wondered if we should go one day with the grandkids. Time to find out if it was worth the high price of admission...
Safari Parc is the animal and amusement park in Hemmingford, south of Montreal, near the new York border with about 500 animals including zebras, elephants, camels, eland, rhinos, wildebeest, ostriches, lions, water buffalo, gaur, tigers, yaks, deer, bison, llamas, ponies, and elk among many others. We began at the drive thru area where you follow a winding road for an hour getting to see, feed and touch many of the animals that are wandering about from your vehicle. The kids were thrilled and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Afterwards we had lunch then walked about the rest of the park. It was hot and the lions and tigers were snoozing in the shade or stretched out on the glass covered enclosures we were able to walk through to get a real close view. We visited the bird sanctuary and a small wooded area filled with very tame spotted deer that came up and fed from the kids hands before heading towards one of the three water parks on site. William and I went to cool off there while Marie and Amy went tubing down the Nile River, joining us later.
We were there almost six hours and, as we had left Ben at home, decided reluctantly to call it quits around 4 PM and head back to the city. William immediately fell asleep in the van but Amy had her music and tablet and didn't seemed phased by the day of fun. On the way back through the country roads we pulled over to help a big snapping turtle cross the highway but he wasn't having anything to do with that and hissed and snapped at us as I prodded him to move along. We stopped to pick up some fresh corn and were home to be met by a very excited dog! The rest of the weekend flew by and it was time to pick up Phil and Fer at the airport, spend another night and then head back home, one more time.
gws
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| heading home, Mercier Bridge and Montreal |
The rest of the weekend ...
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| breakfast |
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| cheerios and strawberries |
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| ice cream at the mall |
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| checking out the latest devices |
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| fresh Quebec corn |
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| painting William's treasure chest |
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| another hot day in the park on Sherbrooke |
