We had already planned to make & share this blog post for literally years, but now is apparently the PERFECT time-! A couple years ago we did the (temporarily closed due to Covid Stay at Home Ohio Orders) African Safari Wildlife Drive-Thru in Ohio-! This very unique wild animal park allows families to drive through in their cars to feed carrots, celery, and more to a plethora of different (safe) wild animals-! This amazing place is located 3 hours from us in South Bend, Jenny had wanted to go since she was 20, we just found out that you can bring your dogs along in the car, it’s great for kids, it’s the perfect social distancing activity for your household, it’s a family-run business (father & daughter) that’s 52 years old!, pre-purchased tickets right now go to helping FEED the animals after they’ve had to be closed for 2 months, & ALL TICKETS PURCHASED TODAY until midnight EDT (to be used ANY time before December 7th) are ONLY $7.99 per person (NORMALLY $24 per adult & $16 per child)-!!
Here’s the link for that deal on tickets:
https://app.locbox.com/en/promotions/126916-may-reopening-re-stock-sale-grab-a-ticket-at-66-off-african-safari-wildlife-park?channel=website&t_id=51549422
and here’s their website for more info in general-! https://www.africansafariwildlifepark.com/
**** We totally already bought this slammin’ deal and CANNOT wait to take our dogs through this safari wild animal drive-thru at some point this year-! We may have even bought more than just 2 tickets…
The last time we went to this awesome Safari was 2 years ago-! We were already visiting friends in Ohio (Toledo- about 45 minutes away), so we figured that we’d swing through and check out the Safari-! It was an amazing experience getting to see so many different animals so close-up, getting to know personalities of different animals, and feed some of them from the car window-!
These folks at the African Wildlife Safari have had a hard 5 months we just found out. On Thanksgiving NIGHT 5 months ago they found one of the animal barns on the property ablaze! The building hadn’t been updated since the ‘80s and there had been a power outage in the entire area in the city that evening, so something went awry in the one shelter and a blaze arose. As a police officer arrived there were TWO explosions in one barn (the 2 heat propane tanks help in there exploding) and a zebra & giraffe could be seen narrowly escaping the flames. 10 animals perished in all, but 400 were left unharmed. The grief felt was/ is real and we believe that it’s very helpful that they provided grief counselors to their staff. The video on this tragedy is very hard to watch (we cried), but here' is the story on that: https://www.13abc.com/content/news/African-Safari-mourns-lost-animals-assesses-the-damage-after-fire-destroys-park-barn-565616361.html
Onto more positive things: The park itself has a massive walk-through section which features a few other animals. The zoo has a few kangaroos, an albino alligator, a pair of black swans, porcupines, pigs, and a walk through area filled with bunnies (and having had 2 bunnies as pets in adulthood we were thrilled about the bunny area!). At the time of our visit they had recently opened a parakeet feeding area where you were provided with sticks tipped with bird seed and allowed to walk through a large bird house. The birds were very unafraid of people and land on the sticks to eat. They also had a strange attraction to Jason’s shoe laces.
Potentially at first when they’re re-opened in Ohio after Covid closures, this section may require social distancing, masks, OR may be closed, so please keep that in mind and maybe plan to visit later in the summer (or even fall) if you want to experience that portion as well. You can stay up-to-date on when they’ll be opened and what the rules will be right on their Facebook Page linked below: https://www.facebook.com/africansafariwildlifepark/
We hope you enjoyed viewing our little trip to the African Safari Wildlife Drive-Thru park in Port Clinton, Ohio from a couple years ago and hope that you get to go through this year (and get the amazing ticket deal offered though TODAY ONLY- 70% OFF)!! This isn’t a sponsored ad, but it’s just something we’ve enjoyed in our adventures visiting 16 states over the past few years & we hope that it can be a safe, fun activity for you to enjoy after your state (and Ohio) loosen restrictions in regards to the pandemic.
Our state of Indiana on the border of Michigan & right near Illinois (after our city’s 2nd biggest spike of Covid cases just the day before) announced that starting a couple of days ago certain businesses can re-open with required MASKS (at least REQUIRED in business buildings in our city), social distancing, and more. We’re still not fully sure what this means for us, but as of weeks ago VENUES already rescheduled all of our March through July wedding clients, so with new contracts in place and new plans we’re ready to go at the start of August (DEPENDING heavily on how Chicago policies are made, how Indiana policies unfold, and how Michigan policies are introduced). We are still booking weddings for 2021 and 2022, but with the obviously IMPORTANT rules at the moment, we sadly cannot do in-person meetings in our office and obviously had to push back Michigan & Chicago Engagement Sessions to later in May (for Michigan) and late June or July for Chicago most likely. It’s VERY difficult for us to stay on top of the names of ALL of the governors in the states that our clients live in AND stay up-to-date on the new policies in EACH state, but after filling out LITERALLY 9 government small business aid forms and FINALLY seeing a small $2,000 GRANT for us from the SBA (originally promised to be $10,000, but large corporations drained the funds) AND still waiting to hear back about more since we’re CLOSED to weddings for 4.5 months from March through July 2020, we know that everything still takes TIME to heal. At this time we’re just very thankful for our clients & family first & foremost since they’ve helped immensely. We hope that you’re able to financially stay afloat and health-wise stay alive & well.
**As ALWAYS, we’ll catch you next Weekly Wednesday-!*