Franklin Drive-Thru Safari

Yesterday Ryan took the day off from work.  We decided to check out Franklin drive-thru safari in Franklin, which is about 40 minutes from our house.  I have to say that it was one of our favorite days ever and I haven't heard Cannon laugh that hard in a long time!

First we did the drive-thru part.  They had all sorts of different animals: deer, camel, emu, ostriches, pigs, longhorns, buffalo, ducks, geese, llamas, donkeys, and some other type that I didn't recognize.  They give you a bucket of food and some smaller cups to feed the animals.  Some animals were a little more timid, like the deer, and they preferred you throwing some food onto the ground.  But others were not shy about putting their whole heads into the car!  We were excited about the camels, but the breath of one camel stunk up the whole car!  And after we would drive ahead a bit, he would follow us.  Several times we would all be looking out Ryan's window and then all of a sudden there would be a huge camel head in front of my face!  Cannon thought it was hilarious!

Cannon wasn't sure about feeding them directly.  This picture makes me laugh because I think it was an ostrich beak coming towards him. 

 

 

Nothing like a big buffalo head coming into your front seat!

Baby ostriches! 

Then we walked around the area to see some of the other animals they have fenced in, like the baby camels, wart hogs, monkeys, lemurs, birds, kangaroos and wallabies, a large snake, and one giraffe. 

We were all laughing at this guy just hanging out.

 

 

Then we did the petting zoo which had goats, sheep, chickens and baby chicks, baby alpacas and baby llamas, calves, and pigs. 

 

We loved holding this baby goat!

And then he started eating my shirt.

 

And then we went into the baby room to hold some baby animals: wart hogs, lemurs, monkeys, and an otter. 

 

 

 

The little monkey wearing a diaper is a capuchin monkey.  He just wanted to cuddle, which was fine with me! There were two other lighter colored monkeys, a brother and sister, and boy were they curious and playful!  As soon as we walked into the room one of them jumped on Ryan's back!  And they would chase each other and jump around.  Cannon kept laughing at them so hard!  The boy one kept teasing the lemurs and pulling his tail.  The guy with us said the lemurs are kind of like cats.  They don't like to be carried around, but they will let you hold them and they like to be pet.  The otter kept laying on Ryan's shoe.  He was very sweet and liked his belly rubbed.  The wart hogs kept picking on him though. 

 

It was so special for us to be able to hold these animals!  We had such a fun day and will definitely go back another time when it's not so hot.