This mural thing gives big 90s/2000s vibes IMO - it reminds me a lot of our local 'free' zoo called Como Park here in St. Paul where we had a lot of our school field trips as a kid! That and Zaboomafoo- which apparently is making a comeback because my kids mention watching clips of it in school! So I was feeling pretty nostalgic looking at it
I think because of the nature of the petting zoo, my phone stayed in my pocket the entire time so I have no further pictures to commemorate our time there! I do remember one goat in particular was kind of over being touched by all the young kids and was trying to dodge them when he happened to get within arms reach and so I bent over and gave him a scratch - where he stopped dead in his tracks LOL I surmised that he liked these long sharp nails giving him good scratches, so I obliged for the next couple minutes.
Eventually we left the Affection Station (scrubbing our hands with soap & water long and good haha!) and made our way back to the train. Our stomachs were definitely grumbling at this point!
Matt and I had a delicious lunch, the kids opting for the Satu'li lunch options instead so they just kind of hung out while we ate. After eating (it was delish) we made our way to Satu'li, stopping first at two Wilderness Explorer stations where we learned a TON. Did you know that venus fly traps are native to North and South Carolina?!?!??! And that there are 600 species of carnivorous plants?!?!? Cause I sure didn't! I think Matt and I were more flabbergasted and asking more questions/interested in what the CM was saying than the kids, ha!! I was slapping my forehead big time for not starting this Wilderness Explorer thing sooner!
Satu'li was an absolute mess, with the CM at the door not letting people in unless their mobile order showed it was ready for pick up (which I understand the need for crowd control, but that just meant there was a huge crowd OUTSIDE the doors). The kids entertained themselves with their WE books while Matt and I took a selfie.
DS5 at some point in that wait said he had to go to the bathroom so Matt took him. DD6 took it upon herself to angle both of their fans at her face, let out a big sigh and said "ahhhh, I'm living my best life"
which of course gave me a good laugh!
Wouldn't you know it, when Matt & DS5 are gone is when my app alerted me that the food was ready so I heaved that giant stroller into the building and weaved my way to the Mobile Order Pickup window. I had ordered 2 kids meals: the cheeseburger steamed pod and the all-beef hot dog wrapped in dough which I had told the kids was an alien version of a hot dog to get them more likely to try it since it obviously looked nothing like a hot dog, ha! I had also ordered the green beer for Matt and I to try. When the CM put the two plates & the beer down I thought to myself "shoot" (or some other similar, grown up word
) and wondered how on earth I was going to do this? Why do I always seem to make this mistake, ha! It's hard enough for me to steer the giant stroller on it's own, let alone adding a full cup of beer and 2 (glass/ceramic- definitely breakable anyway) plates full of food.
I ended up combining the food to one plate, taking 2 big sips of the beer (it was okay, not our favorite) until I could precariously set it inside the sling-type cup holder that came with the stroller, and have DD6 hold the plate of food, requesting she be extremely careful to try not to spill. I then did a lap around the restaurant looking for an open seat but found nothing. Matt called me by that point, obviously having come back to where we were standing and finding us gone. I told him the scoop and asked him to start looking for a table outside. Not ideal since one of the reasons I placed this mobile order was because I knew it granted you access to the indoor (AC) dining, but what was I going to do? So DD6 and I made our way back outside where Matt thankfully found a table in the shade and we sat down for the kids lunch.
I doubt DS5 wanted much to do with that burger pod but DD6 and I enjoyed it!
It was about 12:30 by this point, and Matt and I were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. The wait times were up there, and it was (obviously) boiling hot since it's noon and August in FL. We had done a ton, and the kids were asking to go to the pool so we said sure and after lunch slowly made our way toward the park exit.
) sipping our shared coffee & eating our slice of pumpkin bread while we pointed out all the animals we saw. It is so wild to me that these were hand carved and with a time limit on how long the artists had too- only something like 6 hours or so til the epoxy started to dry??? So crazy!! I can't even draw a stick figure and there are people with this amount of skill level. It's insane!
Now I really might cry!!!!!
