Dave has decided to break his few weeks of vacation days up over the entire year, so instead of a two weeks vacation we have numerous longer weekends and a couple 5/6 day ones, which will be nice. We've already ventured to Bowling Green, Kentucky a few weeks ago. Today it's Huntsville, Alabama. I'm pretty excited because I've never been to Alabama before, except maybe to drive through it.
What a day! We got a little later start than we wanted but all in all we had plenty of time to do the things we had planned. Before leaving Nashville, we had to stop and fuel our car at Costco (cheapest gas anywhere!) and ourselves. McDonald's won the overwhelming majority. Breakfast is the only meal I can stomach there and I actually really enjoy their Breakfast Burritos. Yums!!
We arrived in Huntsville in about 2 and 1/2 hours. Charity took a little snoozy on the way there. Our first stop was Old McDonald's Petting Zoo. You know you're in the sticks when they don't take any plastic and still let you in, only if you mail a check back! Dave had a feeling, we needed some cash but, I guess, we forgot. The petting wasn't much more than a whole bunch of animals, but Charity enjoyed getting to see the animals up close and feed them. Her favorite was the bunnies. We had to revisit them 3 or 4 times. At first she was a little hesitant of them, but by the time we were ready to go, she was walking around holding them. The nice lady that owned the petting zoo was so kind to share with all of of us that they had bunnies for sale. I could have thrown something at her!!Bunny Progression . . . .
"Feeding" the Bunny . . . Petting the Bunny . . . Helping Daddy . . .
Holding the Bunny!! . . . And smiling!!
My favorite lil' lamby. Isn't it adorable??? Makes me want one . . . just for a second, though!
Feeding the donkey . . . Feeding the goat . . .
Petting the dog . . . Oh deer!!
A beautiful day for the petting zoo!! 
The next stop was Cathedral Caves. Now, I've come to the point in my life where being underneath the ground in a little crawl hall is not so enjoyable. I don't know what it is about caves that Dave likes. Must be a man thing! It was so nice and sunny outside, I left my coat in the car and froze the whole time in the cave. Another reason why I'd rather not hang out underground! Burrrr!! Even though the cave stays at about 60 degrees all year, without the sun shining it's a pretty, chilly 60. There was no getting any good pictures in the cave, I did manage to snap a couple cute ones of Charity as we waited for their once-a-day guided tour. 
Signs of Spring . . . my favorite pic of the day!
A bat in the cave!! Ha, ha!! That's about as exciting as it gets! The cave opening (the largest in the world! I would have been happy if that's all I saw. That would have been all the "caving" I needed for this lifetime!)
The sign alone should have warned us concerning our final stop. Alabama's Top 100 what? Scariest places to be trapped? Not to visit? For those overcoming 4-Legged-phobia? This "Safari" was a little too much for me. I can handle the petting zoo, but this place did me in for my animal 
exposure for the year. Basically you drive your car around this place with the strangest array of animals I think I've ever seen. Your next clue should be the waiver you have to sign before entering. And you'll understand when see how uncomfortably close these crazy animals get. I'm glad I had Charity come up to the front seat to sit in my lap or she would have been screaming!! As it was, she was shaking like a leaf. Most of the animals just strolled by and checked us out, but I wasn't too happy with the dumb rams who were bashing their horns into the side of the car. I was telling Dave to move along, but he could only move as fast as the ostrich in front of the car, and Charity was telling me, "Don't worry Mom, I'll buy you a new car, just like this one." I think that was her way of trying to convince me to like it. Even though she was a little scared, she was enjoying it just as much as her Dad, who was trying to get me to let us drive through a second time. NO WAY!! . . . I'll tell him if he wants to see those animals up close again, he can check out my blog!!
exposure for the year. Basically you drive your car around this place with the strangest array of animals I think I've ever seen. Your next clue should be the waiver you have to sign before entering. And you'll understand when see how uncomfortably close these crazy animals get. I'm glad I had Charity come up to the front seat to sit in my lap or she would have been screaming!! As it was, she was shaking like a leaf. Most of the animals just strolled by and checked us out, but I wasn't too happy with the dumb rams who were bashing their horns into the side of the car. I was telling Dave to move along, but he could only move as fast as the ostrich in front of the car, and Charity was telling me, "Don't worry Mom, I'll buy you a new car, just like this one." I think that was her way of trying to convince me to like it. Even though she was a little scared, she was enjoying it just as much as her Dad, who was trying to get me to let us drive through a second time. NO WAY!! . . . I'll tell him if he wants to see those animals up close again, he can check out my blog!! This place was called Harmony Park . . . and when you see the variety of animals all mixed up in this small habitat, I guess it makes sense. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see where many of the animals were so close their breath was on the window. Yes, Dave will be washing the car tomorrow!! I'm not fond of Zebra slobber on my car window!!
At last, it was dinner at Ruby Tuesday and we were heading home. Honestly, I don't care if it's a very, long time before I see a zoo again. Unfortunately on the way home, Dave reminded me that we always like to do an annual visit to the Nashville Zoo while they still have the winter rates in effect, which I believe ends this month. And of course, little ears were listening. I think this year that would make a great father/daughter outing!!
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