The Great Surprise

Last year on Labor Day weekend, I got the surprise of a lifetime when Jake asked me to be his wife.  This year I was treated to another wonderful surprise on Labor Day weekend.  My best friend, Tricia Rose flew herself down to Georgia to spend some time with me.

On Saturday, September 3rd Jake and I went to the Georgia Aquarium (AWESOME!) and then to the Coke Museum.  The Coke museum was a ton of fun, especially the tasting portion where you could sample a huge variety of Coke products from all around the world. Some were gag-worthy, and some were refil-your-cup-four-times-worthy.

After all our touristy adventures, Jake asked me to drive so he could give me directions to our next destination, which I was told was a surprise.  When we started following signs to the airport, I got butterflies of excitement in my tummy (and also tried to remember if we had made our bed, did the dishes, or taken out the garbage that morning).  When Tricia made her way up the airport escalator, I was thrilled to see my friend whom I had missed so much!  I repeated the line "I can't believe you're really here!" many times over the weekend.  That night we took her out to out to eat in Columbus and we had some fried pickles (welcome to the SOUTH!)

The weekend was very rainy, but we had a splendid time playing games, watching a few movies, cooking, eating out, shopping, and touring around.  The rain did not stop us from having fun, but it did delay our trip to the Wild Animal Safari.

I had heard about the safari from friends in Columbus.  One said, "It is by far my favorite thing we've done in Georgia."  So when Tricia came, I knew we HAD to go while she was here!

On Sunday we went to church, had some lunch, and were planning to go to the safari.  The tornado sirens sounded and flood warnings flashed on the TV screen, but this didn't stop me from getting everyone out the door in their rain-jackets.  I was determined to see some animals! When we turned on the radio in the car, the announcer stated that the storm was following right along the route we had to take to get to the safari.  Jake put his foot down and said it was too dangerous.  Yeah, his head is usually on a little straighter than mine.  So instead we headed away from the storm and showed Tricia around Fort Benning.

On Tuesday, before Tricia had to take to take her flight back to Minnesota we finally made it to the safari.  It was still rainy, but there were no tornadoes, so there was no stopping us.

We had rented one of the safari cars (luckily because the animals slobber allllllll over your vehicle) and drove through the safari with our windows part-way down and bags of animal food.  The animals FLOCK to your car, and some are HUGE!  They make crazy noises, try to get their heads in the car, and sometimes nudge the car if you aren't feeding them enough.

The screams, shouts, squeals, and nervous yelling of "go!" "stop!" "roll up your window!" and "ewww it slobbered on me!" made me laugh so hard you'd thought I had lost my cool. 

Imagine this coming at you...

Yes... those are his hooves.  He really liked me.

I loved these little guys.  They were a bit more timid than many of the animals.

This fellow was NOT timid.

Our weekend with Tricia was awesome.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful friend who planned a visit while being so busy with school, work, and moving.  She is such a generous, loyal lady.