This morning we went to Safari Park, the same park we went to last year with Caleb.  It is a really nice zoo with a driving part where you take a tram around open viewing areas, and a walking part that is like any other zoo.  They really have some nice tiger and panda exhibits and we looked forward to returning this year.  Most of the animal pictures today were taken by Ali and she manned the camera for much of the day!

Connie, our guide from last year, took all of us to the park today.  There were four other families with us on this excursion.  Connie handled tickets and handing out maps.

We were a little concerned when Ali took over pushing Chase in the stroller AND reading the map at the same time!  We took the map away.  Concentrate on the stroller…

We boarded the tram for the “riding” portion of the park.  The girls grabbed the front row!

Notice how our fearless director, Diana, choose to be somewhat juvenile and do the “bunny ears” behind Kelly’s head.  Thank goodness she is good at what she does!

I ended up in the front with Brittany!

Diana worked hard to stop Chase from picking his nose before I could get a picture taken.

Kelly looked quite fetching today!

The animals walk freely among the cars.  No animals were hurt the taking of these pictures…

Some of the animals along the way:

This little boy caught me taking his picture!

After the tram, we walked around the rest of the park.  Ali and Abby were watching some of the baby monkeys.

We took a nice little family picture at the tiger park.

Ali wanted pictures of her self EVERYWHERE!

It really is a beautiful park!  It is the largest zoo in China.

In case you still don’t believe that people stare at us:

You can get very close to the animals!

A shot of Ali by the tiger cubs exhibit.

This shot is just to remind people that children being potty trained in China use pants with slits in the back so that they can squat and go to the bathroom at will.  Great plan.  We should adopt that here…

Here is the entire group, less anyone taking a picture.

Ali wanted to feed the giraffe’s.  But, as soon as the giraffe grabbed her stick with leaves on it, she let it go!

Ali has been so nice having here today as she is so very helpful and takes care of the younger kids.  Here she is doing one of the little girls hair.

Ali and Britt stop for a pictures with one of the girls from another family.

We stopped for a little lunch at the zoo.  Really thick noodles.  They were actually VERY good!  Abby is trying a dumpling, which wasn’t near as tasty as the ones we had in Hefei.

The entire group heading up to the Panda exhibit.  They have twelve Panda’s at this zoo.  That is a lot of Panda!

Here are a few shots of the Panda’s.

Ali wanted to try on some of the Panda hats!

They have several red Panda’s.  I love red Panda’s.  The Cincinnati Zoo has a couple, also, but they are a lot harder to find than these were.

Abby was easy to see at the red Panda exhibit, also.

I took the girls swimming this evening while Abby and Kelly went to get a foot massage.  If you remember the pool last year, it was full of algae and was a little gross.  THIS year, you will be happy to know, it was crystal clear and quite enjoyable!

Tomorrow we get Ali’s TB test read (looks negative) and then we are off to White Cloud Mountain!  Stay tuned!!

Cameron