2003 Giraffe Adventure at Wildlife Safari

Our friend Steve Barnhart retired as an Oregon State Trooper and then for several years held the position of Director at Wildlife Safari in Winston Oregon. The large, drive through game park in Winston, Oregon was always looking for ways to supplement earnings and improve their facilities while enhancing  visitor experiences and educating the public about the animals at the park. Steve brought with him lots of new ideas that meshed with those goals. One of those ideas  was to offer a Giraffe feeding “adventure” for visitors. Since that’s the kind of idea that has potential but needs a little fine tuning, on May 3rd, 2003 Susan & I and Steve & his wife Marilyn became the first test subjects for the Giraffe Adventure proposed to be offered beginning in the 2003 tourist season. In addition, Steve announced that it was to be the Barnhart’s present to Susan for her 53rd birthday.

Mike, Marilyn, Steve, and Susan preparing to feed the giraffes
at Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. (On retrospect, I think the pickup
cage may have been meant to protect the animals from us.)

Wildlife Safari had a pickup with protective side screens that we’d use to journey out to the area where the Giraffes roamed free. The staff there had been giving the animals some fruit and vegetable treats from the back of the pickup for a couple weeks prior to our visit to get them used to the vehicle (and people in the back with tasty food items). We loaded up the pickup bed with loaves of bread, buckets of banana bits, apple chunks, & carrots and headed out for our adventure. The  Giraffe keeper gave us instructions of what to do and more importantly, what not to do when the animals approached us. It was hard to think of a beautiful animal such as a Giraffe as being dangerous, but when we actually got close and realized how big they are...well we listened very closely to her instructions and behaved ourselves. (I know that may be hard for some of you to believe, but really, we could contain ourselves for short periods of time when we were younger.)

As several Giraffes approached us and started accepting goodies, they became a little more trusting and allowed us to get a little bit more friendly. That long black tongue is amazing and quite adept at plucking those pieces of fruit and vegetables from your fingers. Taking pictures was a little disconcerting because the animal always got the treat before my brain could signal my finger to press the camera’s shutter button. Susan even got to plant a kiss on one Giraffe's nose...the Giraffe seemed unimpressed.


The resident white rhino and other park inhabitants were very curious in what was happening at the pickup. Again, it was quite exhilarating to find ourselves so close to so many stunning and exotic (and really big) animals. I have to say that being close enough to a rhino to hear his stomach rumble is pretty humbling and it’s also comforting to hear that humans are not the only creatures on the planet that pass gas...just saying...

On that day in May, we all had a very special experience and for Susan the kind of birthday present a farm girl from Wisconsin would never have imagined as she was growing up.

It was good to know that Giraffe Adventures at the park became quite popular after our trial run and has given many people the thrill of their lives. Wildlife Safari is still doing very well and constantly improving our understanding of many endangered animal species through the work done by the dedicated staff and research personnel there.

...I was also very happy and grateful that Steve did not ask us to be the among the first people to hand feed the Wildlife Safari lions up close and personal.

Christmas 2019 on the Oregon Coast

Susan dearly loved the Oregon coast and was especially entranced with the Yaquina Head lighthouse at Newport. This Christmas, it seemed appropriate to spend the week on the beaches and at the lighthouse park...sunny with lots of great wave action on the coast. I stayed at Schooner Landing for a week and then moved down to enjoy a couple of days at our favorite motel, The Elizabeth Oceanfront Suites. Schooner Landing was very nice and the weather was predicted to continue with clear and sunny for most of the upcoming week.

I set up the plywood Christmas tree we've traveled with for many years and plugged in the lights...voilá, a festive tree in the living room.

Also ran into Santa and his contingent riding motorcycles around Nye Beach (sunny on the Oregon coast during Christmas week...why not!)






A couple of months ago, while in the Nye Beach tú•tú•tú kitchenware cottage, I overheard another customer talking about naming her sourdough. I couldn’t resist starting a conversation with her and comparing some of our sourdough notes & history. She and her husband invited me to lunch at their new home while I was in Newport. She set out a marvelous appetizer spread and I enjoyed her excellent bread with several tasty treats. Cynthia and Vince were great to talk with and Vince drove me back to the timeshare since we’d chatted past sunset and I agreed with him, walking along Hwy 101 in the dark the ½ mile to the timeshare would not be wise (especially in flip-flops without reflective tape  ).

Here's four typical whale pictures that actually are just
Norman RockWhale ... a rock outcropping just at the
water surface.

The next several days I spent walking the Yaquina Head park grounds, enjoying Bald Eagles, Peregrine falcons, and lovely weather for the coast in late December. Although sunny, the surf was up and the waves crashing against the rocky shoreline were mesmerizing. While I was there, the yearly whale watch/count was taking place. It was interesting talking to the volunteers, a fellow named Thom showed me a rock out in the surf about a quarter of a mile north of the lighthouse. He said it was the most photographed rock on the Oregon coast...apparently, a very high percentage of people thought it was a whale when the surf rolled over it. He told me they called it Norm, short for Norman RockWhale. He followed that story by noting they tend not to use it much anymore while talking to the younger visitors anymore because of the high percentage that didn’t get the joke because they didn't recognize the name Norman Rockwell...very sad. You can see Norm in each of the collage photos...I circled him in one pic for those of us who are not visually detail oriented.

Some clouds started to gather in the evenings and I got to experience some stunning sunsets.

It amazed me how the colors could radically change in just a few minutes during the five to ten minutes of that magic sundown time on the coast.

It finally started to lightly rain as I made my move to the Elizabeth. As always the staff at check-in were great and one actually remembered the plywood Christmas tree as I carried it up to the room. More walks on the beach and a trip into old town Newport. Crab season was just about to start and the sidewalks were crowded with crab pots ready to go to work. Susan really loved boardwalks and the one along the waterfront here is really wonderful. As always, for meals in the area, I liked to have lunch at The Chowder Bowl or The Taphouse at Nye Creek occasionally. This year I thoroughly enjoyed a meatloaf lunch with a black & tan beer at Nana’s Irish Pub. Of course, there’s always salmon chowder and freshly baked cookies at the Elizabeth for those days when you just want to get into comfy pants and enjoy a light dinner in your room while watching for the green flash at the sunset. It was a great nine days in Newport, lots of high surf & sunshine. All the wave action produced bunches of foam on the beach which sparkled with color...almost surreal at times.

Big surf, lots of sunshine, and piles of colorful beach foam.

On New Year’s Eve, I checked out of the Elizabeth and drove South to Coos Bay/North Bend. Checked into the Quality Inn and headed to Shore Acres for the last night of the Holiday Lights. It rained pretty good for the entire time I spent wandering the beautifully lit gardens. The rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits and the last evening of the light show seemed pretty well attended. I placed one of Susan’s glass disks in an Azalea bush near the caretaker’s cottage.



The New Year's eve storm ramped up the surf several notches as you can see in the three sequential wave pics on the left.

This garden and Shore Acres to Cape Arago trails in general combined to be Susan's second favorite section of the coast. Since she always wanted to go to Shore Acres at Christmas for the Holiday Lights, so I thought it another perfect spot to leave a little bit of her essence.

Some night and day after pictures of the Shore Acres' Holiday Lights display 2019.

I came back the next day to take some comparison pictures in the daytime (for the collage above), walk one of our favorite trails to Cape Arago, and continue to enjoy the tremendous display of big waves crashing on the huge shoreline rocks. Actually got pretty wet with salt water spray from some of the awesome wave action. So, 2019 ended with a fabulous trip to the coast and 2020 started with a sunny morning at Shore Acres/Cape Arago and an afternoon Rose Bowl victory for the Ducks.

Thanks to the weather gods for providing exceptionally
good days during this last trip of 2019 !