Mother's Day Roadtrip

Loxahatchee, Florida:  We embarked in the early morning on our Mother's Day road trip.  What was planned a three generation celebration with my grandma, mom and wife heading to the east coast for the day, ended up one generation short with my grandma opting not to go.

We hit the road early for the cross state trip from Englewood to West Palm Beach.  A long drive through the middle of nowhere.  We have taken this trip several years ago and I had forgotten how uneventful the drive was.  Hours of cattle farms, run down downs, sugar cane farms and prisons provided the scenery for the trip.

After a little over three hours on the road we reached our destination, Lion Country Safari.  The attraction west of West Palm Beach is part driving safari and part walking zoo.  We were the second car in line for the park to open, a great place to be.

Once the gates open, we started the driving safari.  With a navigation CD in the CD player, we hit the open road to come face to face with wild animals with only a windshield separating you from the wildlife.  The safari is home to many animals ranging from Ostrich, Zebras, Giraffes and the mighty Lions.

The highlight of the driving safari is the Gorongosa Reserve.  This is the home of the African Lions.  This is the only portion of the safari in which the animals are caged off from the roadway.  But it is still an amazing site to watch these animals close up.  They were playing with Mother's Day gifts and treats provided to them by the Lion Country Safari zookeepers.

But like everywhere, there always has to be one moron who tries to ruin the experience for everyone.  There was black SUV driving fast through the safari, windows down, yelling at the animals and just being jerks.  A Lion Country Safari vehicle pulled up behind them and magically their windows went up and they were following the rules.  But once the vehicle left they were back to acting like fools.  I just don't understand why people would pay that kind of money to not enjoy the experience.

After we finished the driving portion of the safari.  We headed into the walking portion of Lion Country Safari.  Here they had plenty of additional animal attractions, rides and shows.

As we viewed the animal attractions, we also participated in a few of the hand's on attractions including feeding the lorikeets, feeding the giraffe and mining for gems at the Fossil Mine.  My son took his mom on a Mother's Day paddleboat ride and we rode the ferris wheel as a family.  Then to beat the heat, my son played around at the splash park for a little while.

When we finsihed exploring the walking portion of the park, we headed east to West Palm Beach for lunch.  We got lost a bit but finally reached our lunch destination, Cheesecake Factory.  After eating at Cheescake Factory a few weeks ago in Tampa, I have instantly become addicted and couldn't think of a better place to take my wife and Mom for Mother's Day.  I was expecting it to be busy but whoa buddy was it packed!

We checked in and for a first available table, it was a 15-20 minute wait.  It seemed pretty quick since there was a ton of people waiting.  It must have been a quick wait time because we didn't request an inside table.  But then we realized why it was a quick wait time, because she didn't quote us the right time.  45 minutes later and an argument with the hostess who claimed she told me 30 minutes or more, we were finally seated.

But the wait was well worth it.  The food was amazing.  My mom and I had shrimp, my wife had fish and my son had pizza.  It was all delicious.  For those of you who have never been to Cheesecake, I highly recommend it.  The menu is huge and there is something for everybody.  I can't wait to go back and try something new off the menu.

My wife and mom each got a piece of cheesecake for the road and we started the trip west back towards home.  On the way back, we stopped by at Palm Beach International Airport for a brief stop to eat their cheesecake and for me to photography some airplanes.  I got lost trying to find the observation park, after giving up on finding it and heading back on the road home, we found it.  It was slow at the airport but I did manage to get a few photos.

After the final scheduled flight departed, we continued out journey west.  We decided to make one last trip through the drive through safari at Lion Country.  Your admission is good for unlimited trips through the safari on the purchased day so we took advantage of one last trip through.  The animals were much lazier as it was in the heat of the afternoon, but who can blame them, I'd be napping under a shade tree too.

We then put the east coast in our rearview mirror and headed on the long trip back to the west coast of Florida.  The long drive seemed even longer on the way back.  I planned on making a side trip to the south banks of Lake Okeechobee, but after the long day I decided my bed felt like a better idea.

Everyone enjoyed the trip to Lion Country Safari.  We haven't been there since 2009 and it is definitely an off the beaten path attraction worth seeing.  There is something unique about driving your vehicle through a safari and coming inches away from Rhinos, Giraffes and more.  As for the Cheesecake Factory, we now have another person hooked and me planning another visit and another entree to try.  Another trip to West Palm Beach may in our future too.  While we went in town to eat, we saw the Diva Ducks tour and decided we would like to come back and experience that and see what else West Palm Beach has to offer.

Be sure to check back for the complete gallery of photos from our trip.