Virginia Safari Park

For Memorial Day weekend a lot of the LDS singles head to a place called Duck Beach in North Carolina, but instead of going down there I opted for a camping trip with a smaller group of friends from church. We left Friday afternoon and went to Mallard Duck campground and got settled there. Those in our group thought it turned out to be a clever play on words. It was a nice place and we only had a few other people there in the tent camping area that we had to share it with. We thought we'd probably get rained on the whole week (and we went anyway) but it actually turned out to be perfect camping weather. We had 10 of us there and everyone had a good time. It was a great low-stress way to spend the weekend.

The highlight of the trip was the Virginia Safari Park. Wow. I have never done anything like this before and it was awesome! Its a huge preserve where they have a huge variety of animals and you drive through it in your own car. But that's not all. The exciting part is that you get a bucket of food and roll down the windows and feed the animals directly from the car. Words just can't do this experience justice. Take a look at what we had coming through our car windows!

They have no hesitations.

I know very few people who have been this close to a zebra. You aren't allowed to feed them though because apparently, they bite!

Feeding a bull elk.

This guy had an even bigger rack--it was huge! I pet his antlers, which were in velvet and it was really cool. When I tried to take the food bucket away, he just followed right into the car. He polished off every last bit of feed that I had in my bucket.

Two-hump camel coming straight for my bucket. He didn't go for the food, he went for the bucket and snatched the whole thing away from me and proceeded to chew the entire thing. These guys are hairy and BIG!!

Joe, April, Maggie, Dan, and Joe with a kangaroo.

We left Sunday morning in time to be back for church at 1:30. That evening a group of us went to a free concert by the US Marine band. It was at this place called Wolftrap, a huge outdoor theatre with some covered seating and then a huge lawn to bring blankets and sit. It was a fantastic concert. They played a lot of patriotic songs and then ended the evening with an impressive display of fireworks. It was a great way to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday weekend.