Lion Country Safari

The Florida Summer Savings Pass is a great deal for vacationers to South Florida and Florida residents looking for fun day trips.  I first purchased one for my family years ago when we visited Boca Raton and visited 3 of the attractions.  Now that we live here, I know I can get even more value from it all summer long.  For $58/adult and $48/child, you can enjoy unlimited visits to Miami Zoo, Miami Seaquarium, Museum of Discovery and Science, and Lion Country Safari from 5/12-9/30.

When you consider the regular price of admissions for each of these attractions, you'll quickly see that you could easily get your money's worth.

	Adult	Child
Lion Country Safari	$35	$26 (age 3-9)
Miami Zoo	$22.95	$18.95 (age 3-12)
Seaquarium	$46.99	$36.99 (age 3-9)
MODS	$16	$13 (age 2-12)

This past weekend, we took a trip to Lion Country Safari in Loxahatchee, which is about 20 miles west of West Palm Beach and 60 miles north of Ft. Lauderdale.  We first came here 2 years ago and it's exactly what as I remember it.  It's not a huge, fancy park but there's plenty to do and see, especially for little ones including rides, attractions and animal encounters.  Their website says to plan for 4-5 hours at the park but we were there for almost 8 hours.

You start with a drive through the wildlife preserve.  It's pretty neat to get so close to the animals.  You'll see lions, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, alpaca, rhinoceros, alpaca, just to name a few.

The animals wander everywhere (except for the lions which are behind a fence) and signs remind visitors that this is their home and the animals have the right of way.  Sometimes they cross right in the path of the cars.  You are allowed to pull over and watch the animals.  Just don't be that car that stops in the middle and blocks everyone else behind you!

While we waited for one ostrich to move out of the car path, another one surprised us and came pecking at our window.

As typical of Florida summers there's often rain or lightning.  Apparently the state of Florida has the greatest occurrences of lightning in the entire United States.  So on this visit while there was no rain, all the water attractions were closed because of lightning activity within a 5 miles radius.

While we waited for the spray park and water slides to open, there was still plenty to do.  The kids rode scooters, ran through a hedge lined maze, played mini golf, and visited the petting zoo--all included in the price of admission.

For nominal costs ($1/a stick to feed birds, $2/a small head of romaine), we fed the goats and budgies while we waited.

They also have gemstone and fossil panning, which we didn't do on this visit.  But my kids enjoyed it on our previous visit.  You purchase a mining bag and pour it into a screen bottom box.  You place it in the sluice, a trough of running water.  And as the dirt is washed away, you'll find various gemstones and fossils.  Of course, what you find will depend on the type of bag you purchase.

Finally, 3 hours later, just before we were about to call it quits.  The lightning warning was lifted and the kids got to enjoy the spray park, 2 water slides, water wars, and paddle boating.

Honestly, my older son was not that excited to go here when I told him our plans.  But in the end he said he had a great time.  And isn't that so much of life?  Often it's just a matter of readjusting our
attitude and remembering it's not necessarily about what we're doing but enjoying the people that we are doing it with.