Bluebonnets, Buffalo Burps and a Beaver Lodge

I can't make a post-title like that up. Even I am not that creative!

As you may have caught on by now, Aron and I are in Texas visiting my family and having lots of adventures while we are here! I am LOVING being here while the Bluebonnets are in bloom. It has been years since I have seen them in person and it just about brought tears to my eyes to take pictures of my son in them. See, thats what Texans do. We take Bluebonnet pictures. We pull over on the side of the road- any road- and place our children in the center of a patch of the wildflowers (which happen to be the state flower of Texas) and snap away. Having moved from my homestate almost 9 years ago, I have not been able to carry on this tradition with my son...until today! Feast your eyes on these beauties, taken just "down the road" from Mom's house:

Aron was over this whole Bluebonnet-flower-picture-takin'-business by the time my mom snapped this one for me, but I still adore it and will probalby frame it!

So, let me get to the Buffalo part!

My sister is a teacher out here in East Texas and last week took her class out to the Grapeland Safari. (Grapeland being the name of the Texas town the Safari is located in) She raved about the fun the kids in her class had so Mom and I decided to drive out there with Aron for some fun today. We had no idea what fun we were in for!

The "safari" is really just a huge pasture that you can drive through aimlessly while various tame, yet hungry, wildlife pursues your vehicle for snacks! We saw everything from Potbellied Pigs to Zebras, to Deer, Ducks and Donkeys. We purchased a 2.5 gallon bucket of "feed" on our way into the park and it was gone before we were a third of the way through. Aron dropped a cupfull of the stuff all over the back seat of Mom's car when the first large animal stuck it's head in the window. I haven't laughed so hard in years. It was great!

If you look closely in this picture, you can see Aron's reflection in the side mirror. These guys were a little aggressive in their pursuit for the feed.

This Camel had a thing for my mom. He followed us around the whole time.

I am pretty sure this next guy is a Moose calf. He was so sweet and soft!

And then this guy came marching up. My heart was racing! It was so cool, but so intimidating to be this close to a BUFFALO! And this guy was not shy. Can I just tell you how fast I started scraping up the feed that Aron had spilt from the back seat so that I would have something to offer this guy when he got to my window!

And he did get to my window...and then he came in through it!
I poured the 1/4 cup of feed I had scrounged together into his giant mouth and then he sniffed around- probably to be sure I wasn't holding out!- and then...

he burped.

Right. In. My. Face.

It was gross. It was rank. But it was so cool!

For the rest of the day, Aron kept saying, "My favorite part was when that big guy burped!"

The Burping Buffalo

This brings us to the Beaver Lodge. When we got on the highway and were headed home, my Mom says to me, "Lets drive slow when we get to the end of town. I want to show you the Beaver Dam." I was thinking, 'OK. Sure. It's probably an old tree that fell. Mom thinks it was Beavers, I will humor her.' Good thing I kept those words in my head, or I'd have been eating them. What I saw amazed me so much, I just had to pull over and take pictures!


The picture on the left is before I zoomed in. You can see the little canal they use. It looks like a sidwalk going right up to the lodge. (yes, I googled to find out what he correct term was, since they really hadn't dammed anything here-Hey, I run a quality blog here, people!)

I will admit it, I am an animal loving, nature appreciating, discovery HD-watching, tree-hugging-creation enthusiast. But even if you are not, I hope you enjoyed this post.

And I think I fell in love with Texas all over again today.