Our daughter saw the website for Wildlife Safari 10 months ago and decided that was how she wanted to spend her next birthday. Instead of a party with a bunch of children at our home - YOU BET! I'm all for it. The attraction was the fact that she would be able to feed giraffes - her favorite animal!
As the day approached and plans were made, we made reservations at the nearby Holiday Inn Express. We had originally planned to camp, but the only camping was nearly two hours away on a windy road which would spread it out to three hours. Let's see - four hours to get to the area, three to drive each way to Wildlife Safari and then four hours home after unpacking and packing the trailer - uh, er, no. Just plain, "No."
The alternative was more expensive, but worth it! We were able to spend a lot of time in the pool with the children. They love indoor pools. We had a great dinner and an evening swim. The next morning we jumped out of bed to enjoy the light breakfast in the lobby. Our children were thrilled with Fruit Loops.
Off to Winston - 3 miles.
We had our reservations for the giraffe feeding at 2 pm. The "Zoo" opened at 10 a.m.. We arrived around 11 and had plenty of time to drive through and enjoy all of the animals out in the open. It brought back fond memories of Lion Country Safari in Irvine many years ago. You would know the area as Wild Rivers, the Pacific Amphitheater and Strawberry Fields Golf Course. My memory was of my father getting out of the car to take a better photo with his Instamatic of lions - OUT IN THE OPEN. Good gosh!
Wildlife Safari had the carnivorous cats in larger pens - better than a standard zoo - but not wild and free like the other animals. The bears all had their own large fenced acreage, as well. The instructions before you entered the gated bear area was, "keep your windows up, doors closed and keep moving." Our children took these instructions quite seriously and began to panic as we were stopping to get the perfect shot of the bears.
The highlight of the day came at 2 p.m. We were escorted from the gift shop to an awaiting caged type of truck. We were in the back. It had an open top and heavy steel, mesh walls. The door opened from the outside only. Kind of like wide open "county" transportation. We were told the animals pay good money to have us paraded through. We were also able to feed the hippos. Feeding hippos means throwing apples and sweet potatoes near them. Don't expect them to rush to the treat. They didn't get that large by rushing anywhere.
The guides were kind, thoughtful and informative. It was $40 for each of us. Had I been at the counter I would have balked at the three year old who would cry the whole time having to cough up the $40, but dad was trying to just keep it even and smooth. By the time we were feeding giraffes, we didn't care.
It was so cool. I told our children they would be some of the few people who could say they had giraffe drool on their heads. They thought it was a little cool, but mainly gross.
The Smokin' Hippo restaurant stayed with me for hours later. I would really recommend bringing in your own food. They were nice, but greasy food.
We enjoyed the Village area with the smaller animals. Porcupine, echidna, gibbons - noisy things, python, goats - it was fun to see these up close as well.
Another option is to give elephants a bath. We may have to do that another time. I highly recommend this adventure. They are not gougers like so many themed parks and zoos. 
The $17/person entrance fee let you go through twice at your own pace. We went through in the a.m. and then at the end of their day around 3:30 to see how the animals activities changed. We're glad we did. We almost missed many animals and some are just more active later in the day.
We wound the visit up with the big cats - cheetahs and tigers. It was a fabulous day that we will all remember for many years.
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