Animals for my wild things.

Sunday morning we waited out some of the Tel Aviv area traffic (I have enough traffic of my own at home) and then went to Ramat Gan Safari Park. We took my niece Chana who apparently has been begging to go since the family had made aliyah. I was happy to fulfill her wish and to get the nagging of my sister to stop.
http://www.safari.co.il/content.php?id=3

For the cost of 69 shekels a person (under 2 is free!) you stay in your car and drive around the "Safari". You can see a wide variety of animals like hippos, zebras, gazelles, giraffes, flamingos and other animals that can be identified with the guide they give you. The animals are free to graze and roam around the open grounds around your car. You aren't supposed to open your windows or feed them obviously. As much as Atara LOVES animals, probably her favorite part was being allowed out of her car seat and sit on Mendel's lap as I drove about 5 miles an hour through the park. There is also a special lion enclosure. You go through an automatic gate into a corridor in front of another gate. When the first closes, the second one opens and you can enter the lion enclosure. This was actually the least exciting area as there were about 6 female lions and one male just laying under a tree hardly moving.
They are pretty relaxed about where you drive, so I imagine you could go around again if you wanted to. We chose to park and to explore the rest of the zoo.

The difference between this zoo and the other ones I have been to seems to be the casualness they are with the animal enclosures (of the non dangerous animals of course). My kids could practically pet the giraffes, reach over and touch the penguins (there was one who hung out near the window watching us eat popsicles and seemed like it really wanted a bite that it followed the kids around and around its area.) Of course there were the usual monkeys, elephants, giant lizards, alligators, birds etc. to be seen. We went to the petting zoo where you could pet goats, sheep, llamas and even feed the camel. There were dozens of chickens roaming around and other birds hiding in the brush.  Everyone had a good time exploring and finding out what was around the bend. The zoo was empty (definitely a perk of touring during off peak times). I dutifully avoided it, but they had an amazing extreme play ground with child size ropes course type structures and lookouts. Why did I avoid it? 1) I was tired 2) Atara was tired 3) Even if she wasn't tired she would have wanted to climb on it and I would have to chase her. I gave the kids sodas and off we went. The way out of the zoo parking lot was back through the open safari. The animals seemed to know that the visitors were leaving as they were more freely roaming near the road, we had to wait for the zebras to cross the road -- yes this began a round of "why did the zebra cross the road" joke attempts) basically bidding us a fair well.

We dropped of my niece at her father's office in Petach Tikva. He works in a building next to a gas station. As we drove away my son remarked that he didn't realize his uncle worked at a gas station, he wouldn't have guessed that is what he does!

For dinner time we arranged to meet with my other sister-in-law and niece in Hashmonaim/Modi'in. We went to their house to relax and play with their puppy. Then off we went to the mall for some kid approved mall food (aka pizza or burgers). We roamed around the mall checking out Israeli offerings. The kids marveled at the kiosks with yarmulkas and tichels. I let them chose some candy from another kiosk. When we felt the traffic peak had come to an end we headed back into Ramat Beit Shemesh.