An adventure with Little Buddy

I had grand plans on Saturday.  Out local nature preserve was having an Animal Safari for kids 12 and under.  A one mile walk, stations with some animals, sounds perfect to me. 

We started out with a good pace walking along the wooden trail that covers the swamp.

Much of the area I live in was once swampland, including right where my house is.  There is no way I am wading in this alligator/water moccasin infested water!

We saw tiny baby raccoon's being fed by a bottle.

  

This visually impaired barred owl was so gorgeous.  After this photo he opened his mouth really wide and you could almost see down his throat!

The land in the preserve is beautiful, much like Florida used to be.  The area is huge and actually butts up to the back of my house which is why we see so much wildlife here in my busy suburban area.

Little Buddy had a good time walking, well most of the time.  He didn't understand that there were stations and we had to keep moving.  He had two big crying spells, which is not like him at all.  Half the time I had to carry him from one station to the next.

We saw toads, frogs, turtles and snakes.  Yes we have had enough of the snakes for a while.  He got very upset at the turtle station and cried as we left.  When we were home and he was calm I asked him why he was crying so much on our adventure and he said, "I wanted to go in the gate (pen) with the turtles!"   I explained to him that only the turtle teacher was allowed to be in the "gate" with the turtles, not the children, moms or dads.  He seemed to understand that.

When we got home it was time to wash off the bug spray, dirt and sand from the not so perfect adventure. 

Max, the lifeguard stood by ever vigilant to make sure no one got too crazy in that pool.

Not the most perfect adventure but an adventure none the less.  How was your weekend?