Highlands Hammock State Park... and stuff

Hey look, a July update!... From like.... back in April. Oh well.

 better than nothing I guess.

Highlands Hammock State Park!

(For real this time)

Back on Easter I took a 100 mile or so trip down 27 cutting down the middle of Florida and visited Highlands Hammock State Park, here's some photos and stuff.

 

Real Florida credit!!

The Ranger Lady at the entrance tells you the difference between a King Snake (good) and a Coral Snake.......(very bad)

How about we just avoid both?

oh, crap.... wait... Not a snake

It was so sort of lizard...thing

EPIC Swamp boardwalk thing.... <3

Little baby gator!!! As seen from the little boardwalk thing

But don't worry....

Mama wasn't far away!

So... after seeing that, parts of the trail looking like this were unsettling

Yup.... stepping stones.... in the water

I guess having wanted an adventure... I got one? :D

My car blended in nicely here. Accidental-Camouflage? 

While there was the boardwalk and steeping stones, most of the trails were just dirt paths in the woods.

Pretty.

Prettier.

 But hey look, ORANGES!... Just kinda... growing in the wild.

Hmm... and with all this water... Something was missing

((and NO, not because the gator's ate them JEFF))

DID NOT SEE

But I did see this wild piggy! And she had some piglets... but I didn't stick around because.. well... territorial

So yeah, Highlands Hammock State Park was pretty cool. It just happens to be in the middle of nowhere Florida but was worth the drive (and there was a fantastic Mexican restaurant near it!)

If I don't get lazy (ha) I'll post a few Great Wolf Lodge, Dells, photos tonight.

Also, the orginal post featuring Highlands Hammock State Park can be found here

Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo, or... Killing time before going to Bay Beach?

Well, once finding yourself in Green Bay, Wisconsin with a few hours to waste before the areas only roller coaster opens for the day...

There's the Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo.. or as its now called NEW Zoo.

So yeah, a another new-for-me Zoo credit. Woo!

NEW Zoo, Green Bay, WI.

AZA certified annddd under massive expansion!

Ooooh, I wouldn't wanna miss that!

Oh, wait. 

Oooooh! I'm excited already!!!

uhh?

Pretty.... but uh, where are the animals?

I guess the thing about being at a zoo before it even opens is... None of the animals are really out yet or are sleeping. Note to self, no need to be at a zoo at 8.30AM 

((and while on vacation!))

Well, here's some animals....

Kinda....

anyways... after about an hour of walking around an empty zoo on what was the coldest August day I've had in maybe five years... we started to see some animals... yaayyy :D

Like this little fox!

And this bison, who was pretty impressive.

This goat was being.. uh, a goat?

The lion, like most of the animals were sleeping. 

While it was nice to get to the zoo before the animals had been harassed for the day it would have been nice to see them a little more active...

MOOSE! I think this is the first time I've seen on in a zoo

(but I have seen them in the wild too!!)

Sleepy RED PANDA!!!

Mr. Wolf taking a drink.

Badger, Badger, Badger

(mushroom,mushroom)

 This bird..thing?

Giraffe, say whutttt

:D Sandhill Crane!... My favorite kind of crane?!

(I've got one in my car)

Prairie Dog snack time?!

Caw-Caw'

Where's M1?

ALSO! BEAR!!!! :D :D :D

annddd.....

Some quack-quacks. 

So yeah, Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo / NEW Zoo. Easily the second best zoo I've been to in the state of Wisconsin. Well, I think I've only been to two zoo's in Wisconsin.. but yeah, still, NEW Zoo had Bears, Ducks, Red Panda, and Crane... pretty much every animal I wanna see in a zoo but my favorite, the Hippo :( ...still, its a nice zoo and I ever found myself in the Green Bay area I'd go again.

Hey look, two updates in a row!

I've got a third and fourth set ready to go too, one last one from 2012, and a neewww 2013 set! :O

If anyone's looking here, there's more on the way :)

Fun Stop, Fun Spot? whatever, +1

Never got around to posting some of my random adventures of 2012 on here.... so over the next week or so while I'm on "stay-ction" and not in Texas... I'm just gonna post three of them, I guess. 

Anyways, here's the first installment. Fun Spot Family Action Park!

Ok, lets go.

Fun Spot (now renamed "Fun Stop") on the Parkway in Pigeon Forge, TN

Home to what might be the worlds smallest Sling Shot

(aww, its so little!)

And a brand-new S&S Power Zipline ride.

I've yet to ride one of these style, although my former home-state has one!

They've also got one of only two "half arm" Sky Scraper rides I've seen. And after talking down the price at the ticket booth... Jeff and I took a pretty fantastic ride on it. I'm a sucker for Booster type rides and this one still has the old-school 5-Point harness on it! :D

 Buttttttt the reason we stopped here was for this.....

DRAGON WAGON!

New for 2012 at Fun Spot, although it had been running in Florida

 at the now closed Kidstar Park for nearly 10 years.

 I never made it there before they closed.

When we got up to Pigeon Forge we didn't even know if it was up and running yet. It opened to the public maybe a week before our trip. 

(thankfully..... I would have been crushed to have missed out on such a fine coaster)

yaayyy!!!! CREDIT!

Thrilling, I know.

annndddddddddd

Coaster-Loser-Photo of the ride plate <3

The mini-park also has a few kiddie/family flat rides.. 

Like this new looking Zamp Samba Tower.

And a Zamp Jumping Star.

They also had this... thing... it looked thrilling.

(Oddly enough, I believe this is a rarer wisdom built ride. I didn't look to much into it but I'd never seen one before)

Generic giant Fun Slide named Sun Slide, I believe this also came from Kidstar Park in Florida.

This... terrified..uh.. jaguar on their carousel.

And uh, my first time ever seeing a Wisdom "Space Sled" ride.

 Sadly, it was closed. And while it looks like a piece of junk.. I also like trying out 'new for me' rides when I can. Its based off the same ride as their Tornado, but it has "laydown" cars.

Wisdom makes four types of this ride, with the Tornado being the most seen. Although I've also had the chance to ride their Wind Surfer model and it was far superior. 

(Like a tilting set of flying scooters!)

[/ramble]

So yeah, that's it. Fun Spot Family Action Park... Now named "Fun Stop" in lovely Pigeon Forge, Tennessee right on the parkway along with 100 other go-kart tracks and mini-golfs.... and uh, Bungee Jumping.