Finally, Kenzie's most anticipated destination stop is here...Gainesville, Florida. Tomorrow, we'll be at Jungle Friends, the monkey sanctuary she's been waiting to see for months.

We'll be at Jungle Friends tomorrow for the day, then heading to Daytona on Sunday for a couple of days of relaxing by the beach (assuming Ike doesn't meet us there.)

Saturday Update:

What an awesome, sweaty, exhausting day! Kenzie will have her own perspective to write here, but as far as I'm concerned, today's visit to Jungle Friends met and exceeded our expectations. At 95 degrees and, oh, 130% humidity, I think I lost 10 pounds of water today, as we pulled weeds, planted plants and trees, washed monkey bowls, and cut up fruits and veggies for the monkeys. As volunteers, they really wanted us, specifically Kenzie, to get a real sense of what it's like care taking for these furry little friends.

We met some great young ladies whom are there to finish internships, volunteer, and work full time (some), and they all can work circles around us, often beginning at 6:30am and ending well after dark. I was impressed with all of their hard work and enthusiasm. They gave us some great information as well for Kenzie's potential educational and vocational paths.

The sanctuary is home to almost 120 monkeys, made up of rescued former pet monkeys (MONKEYS SHOULDN'T BE PETS, btw), retired lab monkeys, and other misc rescue monkeys from various back stories. Kenzie used her birthday present this year to adopt Chi Chi, a cute little Capuchin. Chi Chi is a former circus monkey, and was quite fun to watch. She does get a little handsy though, which Michelle learned by getting her pony-tail too close. It took help to get her loose.

One of my favorite parts was when Chi Chi's boyfriend, Jimmy Sr. got a little jealous of me being around, and began throwing stuff at me from behind the cage. He threw sticks, a plastic golf ball, leaves, but luckily...no poo! ;-> It was a fun game that got more fun when I pretended to "hit the deck" and cry...Jimmy absolutely went...I have to say it...APE! He was dancing around, squawking and crying and clapping. All the monkeys in the area joined in. It was a fun time.

Thank God for Blocker, an insect repellent. I had to make a run to town to pick this up, otherwise, my hot wife would have been reduced to one big bite. After applying the good stuff, though, we made it through the rest of the day without a 1000 different bites.

The girls spent the rest of the day at the pool, and just kicking back.

We had a great day, and the next time we're out this way, will definitely make a trip to see our friends (both furry and not so furry) again. Thanks Kari and Crew for a great time!

If you have a moment, please take a visit over at Jungle Friends, they do some great stuff for these little animals. They run off donations, so if you have some to spare, this would be a great place to give. They also sell art created by the monkeys and clothing too.

Faith's blog:
Today we went to Jungle Friends Sanctuary. We got to design/plant in a cage. It was fun. One of the monkeys dislikes men because a male took off some of his fingers but he was still funny. He threw stuff and when my dad ducked all the monkeys thought he was dead so they went crazy. I had a good time.

Kenzie's blog:
This time we got to go to Jungle Friends. It is a primate sanctuary. We got to fix up a cage for some of the monkeys. Although we sweated a lot, I loved it! Next, we cut up veggies to make “monkey soup”. I tore up broccoli and peppers .I then snapped peas. Finally, we washed the monkey dishes. It was all really hard work, but in the end…IT WAS WORTH IT!!!!!!!!


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Gainesville, Florida

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