I am doing Project Life 365...you can check out my photos at www.scrappygirlsdailylife.blogspot.com!

Monday, August 24, 2009

T.I.G.E.R.S. or The Coolest Thing I Have Done In A While

I am finally getting around to telling you all what we did on day #4 of our trip. In Myrtle Beach, SC there is an attraction at Barefoot Landing called T.I.G.E.R.S (The Institute of Great and Endangered Rare Species (I think that is it)). You can have a pic taken with a couple animals OR you can do a VIP tour of the reserve. The tour is $199 and you can purchase a video and/or photo collection DVD of your experience. In all it cost around $450 for Manga Dork and I (we split the cost of the CDs with Lil Sis. Spending this much money on one activity made me really nervous...would it be worth it?

We arrived at the reserve and were welcomed by a woman with a black eye and about 5 stitches across her cheek...what had we gotten ourselves into?


The first picture set up was with a LIGER (part lion/part tiger)...Napoleon Dynamite would be SO jealous. Standing on his hind legs he is 11ft. tall.



Then they bring out a Benturong (sp?)...he was a little creepy. We sat on a bench side by side and he walked on our laps while we petted his back...eek! He smelled like caramel popcorn...weird! Ok by the time I had survived these 2 I was feeling a little more confident...

After watching 2 Linx cats jump into the air after lures they took us to this petting area and put a 3 month old tiger in our laps.


This little cub is only 1 month old. It smelled like baby formula.


They had us all sit with our legs out in the pen and turned all kinds of furbabies loose on us. This little softie is a baby puma.


This was AMAZING! By this point I think I would have paid DOUBLE!


The baby Linx panted just like a dog. Did you know only 2 wild cats purr? The puma and the cheetah.


After the petting area we met Bubbles the Elephant. A guy came in riding her and when she bent down to let him off she passed gas VERY loudly. I can now say based on experience that downwind of an elephant is a BAD place to be. Bubbles showed us how she could eat a whole watermelon and we each fed her a carrot...eek...this made me a little nervous...I need that hand to type! LOL!


We got even more up close and personal...elephants feel so weird.


Someone asked me a while back to post a pic of my hair...here it is...I can't believe there wasn't leaves or grass or a small animal or two stuck in it by that time.


Next a lemur came to visit...we gave it a bottle and then it basically used us like trees and jumped all over.

Oh I loved this little gibbon monkey...so cute...and those are some LONG arms. Thank goodness he/she was wearing underpants.

Oh yeah...this was as cool as it looks...I LOVED it!
The last thing we did was go to a pool area and watch tigers swim. Then the orangatans came out in life vests and went in the pool. Not a normal activity for them in nature.
I would highly suggest this to any animal lover! Coming next...meet the new furry member of our family. She is a little less wild then these babies!

26 comments:

valentine said...

oh my goodness, i would love to hold an orangatan (sp?) looks like you had a fun time!

Kristina P. said...

Holy crap! That is awesome! I'm glad you didn't die.

CreativeMish said...

What an amazing experience! When you first put the price my heart jumped to my throat.... then you started posting all the pictures and that you actually got to interact and touch and hold the animals. I am so jealous!!

CB said...

That would be such a neat experience. I have riden and Elephant before - glad it didn't pass gas!
It would be SO fun to be able to hold and play with all those little baby fuzz toys. You see them at the zoo and just want to cuddle them. I think totally worth the money!!
The Orangutangs are awesome!!

Neat Neat Neat!!

And DANG SISTER your hair is SO long!!! I had no idea.

tammy said...

My MIL and 7 yr old would be all over this! Me, not so much. I'm glad you had fun though!

Anonymous said...

A-Maze-Ing!!!

What a wonderful once in a lifetime experience!!

Claudya Martinez said...

Wow! That's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Jane In The Jungle said...

That is one cool place...my hubby would love the Liger seeing as how he loves Napoleon!!!

laterg8r said...

once in a lifetime awesome :D

Anonymous said...

OMG Scrappy, how awesome! GREAT PICS!!!! I love your hair :) Looks like you all had a great time! :)

Cynthia said...

Woah! What an amazing experience! You guys look so cute! I can't believe how long your hair is- I had no idea.

My little sis has some pics similar to yours but only because she served a mission to South Africa and Namibia. Who knew you could do all that here in the US?

Marilyn said...

Oh My! Looks like a blast and totally worth the money!! The babies were so cute and adorable, Cliff LOVES big cats!

WHY, oh WHY is MD wearing a Team Edward shirt????? I thought she was a Jacob girl???

The Redhead Riter said...

Wow...I had to keep reading to make sure they were real and then I thought, "She's crazy"

Kaci said...

How awesome is that!!!! :)

The Rantings of a Drama Queen's Mum said...

Hi. Very cool blog. Love the pics.

Pam said...

Wow! That is awesome. I think it was totally worth what you paid and I am the queen of low cost field trips. lol

thatgirlblogs said...

what an amazing experience! seeing you hold tigers gave me chills!

Unknown said...

Wow! What fun. I love animals. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Chanda said...

OMG I am in love with this place and I have never been. Remember you are talking to ElleMae Clampett here. I now know where I want to spend my 10th Ann vacay. I have to go there. I am looking them up now. Such a cool place.

JennyMac said...

Oh my word, Scrappy! EVERY picture is fantastic. How cute is the pic with the 1 month old cub? I love it.

mCat said...

Now THAT just looks amazing! I would have paid the money too!

But did the orangatans kiss you? : )

Sondra said...

Soooo worth the money. I want to do that too. My mouth was wide open the whole time reading this post... wide open saying aaahhhh... I even had to call Brady to come and look at all the fun you had.

Oh my goodness... it is amazing. I also had NO idea you had hair that long. Holy cow... gorgeous!! WOWZA!

What a VERY amazing trip you had. Totally Jealous!

kado! said...

That is Crazy Fun! How exciting!

...and I never knew a "liger" was real...I though it was someting Napoleon Dynamite made up....you learn something everyday... ;)

Crazymamaof6 said...

did they also have a Tigon? 'cuz i hear they're totally stupid and they reek like poo.

hee hee! totally freaking awesome place and so worth the money! very cool!

Annie said...

That is so cool!!! Happy SITS Saturday Sharefest to you! :)

House Queen said...

Looks crazy to me! I am not a nature girl! Looks like you enjoyed it though!