Letters to Joseph-Portland

The next day we headed up to Portland, OR for our last night of the trip…and we stumbled on one of the highlights of the trip! Right about Roseburg, we saw signs for a Wildlife Safari. This seemed very strange considering we were in nowhere Oregon, but we decided to check it out. We were so glad we did! There was a little hut where you paid $17.50 per adult (you were free), and you just drove into the wild animal areas. The speed limit was 10 miles per hour, so we were allowed to take you out of your carseat and you rode up front with us. They warned us to watch out for the rhinos, that they might poke the car, so we hurried past them to the lions who were sleeping, but only about five feet from our car. I guess animals can be less afraid of cars than of humans on foot, so they were content with the parade of cars going past them all. It reminded me of Candy Cane Lane here at home, but with wild animals. Something was a little strange and wrong about it, but it was such a novelty and you were loving it so much that I set that aside and we had a blast! We say Zebras, Bears, Hippos, Camels, Ostriches, Emus, Mustangs, Elk, and much more. The highlight of the tour was the Giraffe…we stopped by him while he was eating leaves from the high branches and we reached back and got your stuffed giraffe. You held it and looked up at the real giraffe and we could see the light bulb go off in your brain as you made the connection between the real and the abstract, it was quite a moment!
We stayed in Portland that night and the next day we went to this great wading pool where you played in the water and made more friends. Then we drove home that day and were happy to spend the night in our own bed. Ahh. Pillow top.