Kentucky Adventures

Sometimes, you just need a break away from normal everyday life. And sometimes, that means not going to a top tourist attraction like Panama City beach or the Smokey Mountains for an entire week.  Sometimes, you have to look for places to go that are closer to home, so you have time to juggle getting things done around the house. For us, our last vacation was like this. The first half of our vacation consisted of helping my mom move into her house, getting a few things done around our house, and then taking a couple days to go and do things fun with the kids. Our small road trip consisted of going to Horse Cave, Kentucky. And if you love animals, you will love this.

Our first stop was Dinosaur World. If you have small children, they will fall in love with it. The first thing my little boy noticed when we walked into the park was a playground for kids. There was a set of huge tyrannosaurus rex skeleton bones that were like a jungle gym that the kids could climb on, dinosaur slides, and different dinosaurs to sit on.

Then we walked through the park, searching for dinosaurs. And there were hundreds of dinosaurs scattered through the park. I watched as my 3-year-old went through the park naming all these dinosaurs, and his face would just light up. And the only thing that he liked more than walking through the dinosaur park was that he wanted to go back to the dinosaur playground and play with the kids.

The mechanical T Rex was pretty cool for kids to ride on. It was ginormous. It’s mouth would move up and down. It’s tail would swipe back and forth. Gazing far out in the distance in front of the dinosaur, my boy exclaims, ” You see any dinos yet.” “I don’t see any dinos.” Riding and chasing looking for dinosaurs.

That’s just a few attractions that we enjoyed. There was also a place that the kids could dig for fossils and an inside attraction with more  mechanical dinosaurs that moved and roared. Enough to scare a 3-yr-old.

Later that day, we went to Dutch Country Safari. Another grand attraction. The atmosphere so simple and serene. The landscape beautiful. It was ran by the nicest Amish people you’ll ever meet. A petting zoo full of goats that you could feed and pet, and if you’re a 3-yr-old hug and want to take home. After we enjoyed the goat hugs and the inside mini zoo, we waited around for the hayride. The kids played on the tractor slide and raced through the tunnel. This hayride was no ordinary hayride.  You rode on a bench or bale of hay inside a trailer pulled by a tractor. They opened the gates as you entered the field filled with all different kinds of animals. You got up close to a lot of animals as you fed camels, longhorns, zebras, bison, water buffalo, and wildebeest. That’s just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

Kentucky Down Under

Another interesting attraction to see was Kentuxky Down Under. It’s pretty cool to see kangaroos in Kentucky that you can feed and pet and interact with. To see kangaroos that are native to a different country in our state was so interesting. To pet their fur and for some reason in my mind, I thought that kangaroo’s fur would be kind of rough and coarse, but to feel their fur and be surprised by the softness.

Feeding lorikeets and having them land on your shoulders, arm, and head. Feeling like your back in the land of your ancestors as a sheep dog does what it’s trained to do.

There are so many extraordinary things to do in that area of Kentucky. If you live close, take a day, go explore. In my opinion you won’t regret it. I’m sure if my three year old has his way, we will be making a trip back to see the dinosaurs.