Paul Bunyan~ the largest man alive!

To get to our vacation spot we drove I-29 North to Fargo and took a right. Once we were into Minnesota it took a little zig zag action to get to Cass Lake. If you have not been to this area you may not have heard of Paul Bunyan. And his Big Blue OX, Babe. I can remember reading about him in school. The legend says Paul and Babe made the 10,000 lakes in Minnesota~especially Lake Bemidji, which looks like Paul's footprint. Paul gets a lot of mileage up north with huge statues and many business named after him. Of course we had to stop and get picture of the little darlings in from of Paul and Babe.

Paul in Bemidji, MN

Paul in Akeley, MN

Of course who can pass up a trip to Paul Bunyan's Animal Land???? Not us! We drove past the last time we were here but they hadn't opened for the season yet. It was moved to the top of the list so we were sure to make it this time. Sold as Minnesota'a largest Wildlife Park/Petting Zoo, it is easy to get your hopes up! We are very spoiled because at home we are just a short drive away from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. So if this is the LARGEST in Minnesota it must be great!

The entrance is designed to look like an old town with store fronts and the park is located behind it. As we entered, the first animal we encountered was a baby kangaroo...in the gift shop. It was kind of cool to see a 'roo this close. While my husband waited in line to pay the boys and looked around at all of the treasures in the shop. It was your regular t-shirt, stuffed animal, wooden bird, army guy (? at a petting zoo) items. Of course my children where begging for one of everything. They also had treat bags for sale to feed the animals. We grabbed up three of those and with out any directions from the workers were allowed to enter the "zoo". The first display we came to was the large trout pond...large if it was in my back yard, not so large at a "zoo". And there were no trout. Next up were the "exotic" animals in cages. Really ugly small cages... It was kind of sad. There was a raccoon, a bob cat, bears ( we dropped snacks to the bears through a long pvc pipe), lions, lemurs.....as we rounded the end of the cages there was a large gate where you enter into the deer pen. This was worth the price of admission. The deer come up and eat out of your hands. They have 3 different types of deer: Whitetail, Sika, and Fallow. One of the whitetail momma's had just given birth to a fawn that morning. It was beautiful to watch her care for the little one while it learned to get his legs going.

Overall, not the best thing we visited, but seeing the deer up close was cool. I think it must be like Wall Drug....the anticipation is the best part. Here are a few more pics from the day:

Waiting for some food to come down the chute.

Bear sticking his nose up the chute and snorting

Hello, Joe Camel.

Video~ feeding the deer Lonnie, being the great outdoorsman that he is, made friends with this deer. He would not go away....it was pretty funny!