Safari with sound effects

But why stay in one place, sleep in the same bed, more than a couple of nights in a row? But why?

We took yet another family road trip, this time sans les dads, to Kolmårdens djurpark (www.kolmarden.com); me and the kids, my sister and her two children: Petter 3 1/2 and Maja 10, and our parents.
Two days without any electrical distractions, Nintendo's locked up in the car and no music machine (Amanda's mp3 player) around. Just us and the animals; who is looking at whom?..

When travelling with a 3 1/2 year old, no other entertainment is necessary really. Petter is more than enough and combine him with Amanda, and we have non-stop blabbering. New this year is the cable car safari ride; 30 minutes of slow travelling over the Swedish forest, African savanna and Asian jungle. We saw brown bears, giraffes, lions, deers and mountain goats - all accompanied with the soundtrack from Petter who knows songs about every animal alive (and dead - he knows some dinosaur ones as well...). We floated over the brown bears: "Björnen sover, björnen sover i sitt lugna bo", we were feet away from the majestic mountain goats: "Lilla bocken Bruse, trampar över trollebron..." , not a dull moment. Here he is in action:

Somehow there's only uphill at Kolmården, and with a ten year old, and eight year old, a six 1/2 year old and a three 1/2 year old it can be quite wearing, add in that it was pretty much the two warmest days of the summer. Phew. That first day we did not only go on the safari ride; we also saw the dolphin show, we saw the seals and sea lions and one lonely penguin, two out of three kids did trampoline bungy jump, we visited the monkeys, had lunch and ice cream, of course, and we walked. And walked and walked.
When we finally reached the hotel and got our dinner and exhausted fell into bed, the adults had consumed six large bottles of beer and three bottles of wine. Out of pure exhaustion I believe.