Six Flags Grape Adventure

This past weekend, a few of my fellow female engineer coworkers and I participated in a 5K at Six Flags Great Adventure. While planning, one of the girls learned that there was a food and wine festival being held the same weekend. We figured we'd make a day of it and booked the upgraded safari package, which included a safari tour and wine tasting as well as admission to the food festival as well as the theme park.

The 5K was a fun experience because we got to walk through the park whilst no one else was around and we even got to walk through some of the 'employee only' restricted areas and saw the leftover Fright Fest props as well as the upcoming holiday decor.

After the race, we hopped onto shuttle buses which took us to the start of the safari.

We saw loads of cute animals. I'm always torn about supporting zoos and animals-as-spectacle-type places because I'd rather the animals roam free in their own habitats. However, I do commend and appreciate the conservation efforts for all of the endangered species so it's just one of those bittersweet things for me. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy myself. I had so much fun looking at all the different animals and I did appreciate that most of them did have a pretty luxe environment with loads of space to hang out.

The tour is great because you do get pretty up close and personal with so many different animals, including more exotic creatures like elephants, rhinoceri, and zebras. There were also a bunch of herd animals (whose names I cannot remember) that were constantly on the road blocking our path, which I found cute.

Halfway through the safari tour, we had a pit stop at Camp Aventura, which is where we got to have a wine tasting whilst ogling baby lion cubs, baby goats, and gorgeous giraffes.

The lion cubs were just a few months old and they were so cute and precious. One of them was hopping around making the sweetest little growl. There was a vet on site who said that vocal little lion cub was letting everyone know he was hungry.

There was also an anteater roaming around an enclosure. His behavior was similar to the way my dog acts all the time. He would play with something, hop up and get the zoomies, go in his little bed, come out and play some more; it was really sweet.

We learned that the anteater is related to the sloth and has really sharp claws on their front paws that can really hurt you. It walks on its knuckles because of its claws and its hair is soft. We didn't actually get to touch its fur, but we took the biologist's word for it.

There was a pen of full grown boy goats but there was also a pen of a bunch of mama goats with their babies and a bunch of preggers goats. In the mama-baby-preggers pen, there were two giant pigs walking around as well.

We got to pet the babies, which were barely three days old. They were so sweet and their fur was so soft. I wanted to take them home.

A bunch of us sprung for the opportunity to feed the giraffes. It was $6 (plus tax) and it worth every penny.

I found the bears adorable, especially the ones that were sitting on their butts and scratching their bellies.

I wish I'd had my paparazzo lens because I could've gotten a better shot of this joey in its mama's pouch. Our tour guide told us it's v. rare for a joey's face to be sticking out of the pouch; it's usually the feet.

After the safari, we headed to the food festival to stuff our faces and then a few of us rode some roller coasters. I rode El Toro for the first time and loved it.

We had a great day. If Grape Adventure pops again next year, I highly recommend it.

xoxo.