We decided to close out summer vacation with a quick trip out to central Kansas. Last year we visited Hedrick’s Exotic Animal Farm and I posted about it here and here. Since we loved it so much last year, we decided to return again this year! First, on the way, we stopped at Tallgrass Prairie, a national park.
File those under: “Yes Kansas is Beautiful.”
We got to ride a bus out to see some of the preserve and Simon fell asleep on the bus.
From there it was off to Hedrick’s. We started out visiting and feeding the giraffes. While last year, Zachary wasn’t so into feeding the animals, this year he was very much into it!
I’m counting this as “hugging an animal,” one of the things on my 35 Things List!
This one giraffe, Benjamin, just loves people. He was so interested in us. He actually licked my camera at one point!
We also met and fed the kangaroos.
After the official tour, we were able to visit some of the animals more on our own.
And the bottom row here is from the morning. We met some baby animals and fed bottles to camels!
We visited the giraffes again and saw some more of the animals.
We also went back to see the kangaroos. Zachary really liked the big turtle that was in the kangaroo pen!
Afterwards, there were pony and camel rides!
In the bottom left photo you can see a goat that escaped the barn and was checking out the camel!
When we left the farm, we stopped at the Hutchinson Zoo. We had been there last year as well. It is small and free! (The train costs a small amount).
Our last stop on the way home was the Chase State Fishing Lake, which I first heard about from a fellow blogger!
If you follow along the side of the lake, a path leads you down and to the bottom of a waterfall flowing into a stream. The kids all loved it. And I was happy to find another beautiful place in Kansas!