Preservation Station at Barefoot Landing

The kids and I saw a segment on The Today Show a few weeks ago about an orangutan who can swim who lives on a preserve near Myrtle Beach.  I ran to the computer to look it up because, of course, we wanted to go.  Unfortunately, it was almost $200 PER PERSON to tour.  So, I kept digging around the website and found out that we could go to Barefoot Landing, just a few minutes north of Will's parents' house, to have our picture taken with baby tigers.

We arrived at 4:00 and were the second group in line.  They didn't open until 5:00, but it was totally worth it to be in line early because we were up close when they started bringing in all the babies.  We finally were able to pay and meet the babies.  They were SO cute and it was totally worth the wait...

It's hard to say who was more excited.  We didn't know that they would take our pictures with a little teeny fellow like this one.

Look at that sweet face.  His ears were so tiny and his fur was coarse; I expected it to be softer and smoother.  McIver hadn't put much thought into it, so he didn't really care.  He was just excited to be that close to a tiger!

Here we are with a white tiger named Jenny.  She was HUGE and HUNGRY.  She went to town on that bottle.  I was glad they told me I had to be the one holding the bottle or it could have been a deal-breaker if the kids had argued over it.  We were in line for an hour (a really hot hour!) and had about 60 seconds with the animals.  It was like waiting in line for a ride at Disney World - totally worth the wait.  This was an experience we will not soon forget!