Lake Tobias

If you aren't from the central PA area, you might not be familiar with Lake Tobias.  Basically it is a wildlife park & petting zoo.  It has your standard zoo exhibits like lions, bears, zebras, monkeys, etc.  And it has a reptile & amphibian building with a demonstration you can watch of sloths, snakes, alligators, etc.  But the real highlight is the Safari Tour.  You climb aboard a school bus with a safari paint job which has had its top cut off and you can get up close and personal with some pretty big animals.  I'm not sure you can feed buffalo, deer, texas longhorn bulls, etc. at any other regular zoo.

We met up with Mandy, Austin & Bailey to enjoy the experience with them.  These first pics are from the Safari ride.  I can't remember half of the different animals we saw, so if you know them - good for you... if you don't - oh well, I never promised a biology lesson.

 There were some animals that were very comfortable with having a bus in their backyard and had no issue with trying to get on board. 

 These guys were huge.  There is no way to describe the size of those horns coming trotting over to the side of our bus.  We were warned to watch closely and protect our eyes and small children.

 This elk (yes, I do know the name of at least one) kept swinging his head back and forth between me (who had no crackers) and the lady behind me (with the huge stash of crackers).  He banged her elbow with one of his antlers a couple of times but fortunately no injuries.

 Maddie loved pointing and saying "baby alligator" during the demonstration.  But when given an opportunity to pet one, she was super shy.  All talk - no action.  Ha!

 She really enjoyed feeding the baby goats.  They really enjoyed trying to eat Tom's shoe laces.  I think they were crackered out. 

 Ooops, this pic was from the Safari ride too.  These birds were crazy and we were told not to try to feed them by hand... as in, just throw the crackers to the ground because birds are mean and will bite your fingers off.  And then poke your eyes and steal your camera.  We kept Maddie a safe distance from the birds.

It was a really good time at Lake Tobias and I recommend it to anyone, especially if you have little kids.