Everland

On Saturday April 11 we went with Terri and Jini to Everland. It's an amusement park not to far from our house, or so we thought. We picked that day because there was a tulip festival. Matt and Amber also happened to be going too but were with other friends so we didn't meet up with them too much.
We had to take two buses to get there, as the direct bus only came once every 40 minutes. The bus that should have taken about 45 minutes, turned into about an hour and a half due to heavy traffic and because of all the starting and stopping I got very motion sick and had my head hanging out the window for part of the journey. Consider that the bad news first! hehehe... Other than that I had a fantastic day! The moment I saw the gate I knew Everland was a special place. It's pretty similar to Disneyland except it has it's own characters. The main grounds are all done up in a fantasy theme with turrets and cute little shops everywhere. There were flower beds chalk full of perfect red and yellow tulips. The first photo is of us trying on cute headbands. I chose one with flowers and I made Curtis wear the one with antlers. hehehe. We didn't purchase them, that would be too cheesy!

The first thing we all wanted to accomplish as finding food. We were all thinking burgers would be good so we ate at burger cafe. By coincidence we ran into Matt and Amber. Jini hadn't met them yet and actually had chosen the table they just stood up from... how weird is that?? We chatted with them and ate our weird spicy burgers. They were basically meat and a bun like normal, but then the toppings weren't the usual mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomato ensemble. Instead it was like sauteed vegetables with a thick goopy sweet, sour and spicy sauce. I can't say it was my favorite, not was it terrible.

We spent most of our time walking around looking at things. Jini and Teri weren't fond of roller coasters and the lines were terrible so we avoided all the rides. They did look quite impressive though. They had a huge wooden roller coaster that I was tempted to try on several occasions. It was especially alluring because you could hear the "Whoosh!" of the wind as raced on the track. It was so loud we were looking for the thunder clouds at first. We looked at the tulip gardens and took photos of each other. There were all these pinwheels used to make the gardens more beautiful and dramatic. It was really beautiful. There was also a huge water fountain that spouted water vertically. It was choreographed a bit, not really to music, but there was a little program to which each of the spouts stopped or became taller.

The one thing Curtis and I were particularly interested in was seeing many of the animals they boasted to have there. I was quite impressed this most of the enclosures except the Safari Ride. In the map/ information guide, it said that it was the only enclosure in the world with lions and tigers cohabiting. The result of this has actually produced a mix between the two which is being called a "liger". I will completely admit that I was very grateful to be able to see such magnificent animals with the view I had, but at the same time, as I was enjoying, I looked around and noticed that there were about 14 large cats all in one enclosure that might be suitable for a pair. The ligers were in a very small pen as well. The most disappointing part was the next enclosure. They had grizzlies! I'm not even kidding! I was so surprised! It was quite sad though to see about 10 grizzlies lazily lying along the road lifting their head to catch a small biscuit that the driver threw their way. Those amazing animals were reduced to circus pets. Sigh, it made me feel ashamed that I was naive enough to think that it might actually have been a good example of a modern zoo. It was obvious though that their only concern was attracting visitors.

After that we went to see some monkeys and were on the epic search for the polar bear. We didn't find him, but we saw lots of different animals. My favorite were probably the monkeys because they're so amazingly agile and cute. Their facilities were also a bit more up to par.

When it got dark, we headed toward the area where we could see the parade. I love night parades! The more I see the more I love them. This one was ultra cheesy with robots and heroes fighting dragons. There was even an Alice in Wonderland float! I'm kind of amazed that there aren't any copyright infringements going on.

After the parade we were all thinking it was time to go home. The only things left open were the roller coasters, and while it was tempting for me, I didn't have anyone else brave enough to escort me, so I didn't make them stand in line waiting for me.

I do have many more photos, but the up loader isn't working for me. I'll have to add some more when I get a minute.

Thanks for tuning in!