I planned on writing this post a while back, but then the world broke out in a pandemic and it seemed silly to write about an outing that nobody could go enjoy in the current climate. But I decided to sit down and revisit the idea for this post because, well, this is month four (hundred?) for us in quarantine, with no end in sight. And you know what? Dreaming up some kind of escape, or making a plan for a fun activity once we’ve all made it through, doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
So today, I’m going to tell you all about our visit to the snake farm. We went for my birthday, just Addison and I, in early February. If you’re in the Austin area, I highly recommend this activity for anyone who has kids. It’s not as big as a zoo, which means not nearly as many people (which I loved, even before this pandemic). Regardless of their size, they have SO many fun animals to look at and even feed and pet!
It is located just south of the city in New Braunfels. From our house in Kyle, it was only a 20/30 minute drive which I call a big win. I almost missed the turn-in because it's in a strip shopping type area right off of the highway. Not necessarily what I was expecting to see for our first visit there.
I’ll be totally honest with you though, I hate snakes. They freak me the eff out. You’re probably thinking, “Well, Megs, why did you go to a snake farm on YOUR birthday if you don’t like snakes? Seems like a silly outing to plan for yourself.” And you’d be right. It was silly. I wanted to go to the Austin Zoo to start with, but at that time, Addison was still take two naps a day and the zoo is just a little bit of a drive for us. By the time we got there, we’d have to literally turn right back around to make our nap (because I don’t know about y’all but baby sleep is SACRED in my house and we do everything we can not to mess with it).
So, we hightailed it past those slithery, scaly bad boys and made our way outside to some of the less nightmare inducing animals. You will see zero pictures of snakes included in this post. Because I really don’t need any extra reasons to stay up at night these days, my insomnia and tendency to overthink conversations from eight years go do a good enough job on their own.
But here is what we did see:
A grey wolf. This guy was cool. Addison loved him because she thought it was a dog. He paced his enclosure while we stood there and then as we walked away, he raced after us looking like he was going to pounce. For sure freaked me out, so we didn't go back by. Note to self: not a dog, if seen in the wild, run.
OTTERS. I really don't think I need to expand on this one. Who doesn't love otters? No friend of mine, I'll tell you that much.
Massive turtles and these adorable little horned guys that I cannot remember for the life of me what they are. Addison thought these guys (turtles + furries) were all hilarious. We hung out here for a while.
Look at all these goats! This was their little petting zoo area. We didn't go in, but now that Addison is older (once the world opens up again and the pandemic is over) I think that she would really enjoy doing this. We just hung out and watched other people do it during this outing.
A HOOTER! Owls are a personal fav of mine so I was super excited to see one here. We even hoo-ed at him for a while, but he wanted no-thing to do with us. We loved him anyway.
Added bonus: we got to have lunch with all the roosters. They were very pleased that Addison throws more food on the floor than ends up in her mouth.
I have a ton more pictures, but I will spare you the family photo album (for now).
We really did have a blast during our little outing to the Snake Farm. If you guys are ever in the area and looking for a fun family-friendly activity, this is on our list! And as always, if you end up going at some point (probably in the distant future) we want to know what you think!