Haunted Hike

This evening we headed to Little River Regional Park for their Haunted Hike. The first half was lit by friendly milk jug jack-o-lanterns and CLAWS inc. had people stationed at pavilions around the trail with various birds of prey for us to visit with. Most of them were look-only animals, but the African raven, Grip, was greeting the crowds.

Here's Benjamin taking a turn petting Grip:

Grip thought Rachel's arm would be a fun place to perch:

It took Miriam a few minutes to be brave enough to pet him:

Here's Andrew taking a turn (I took a turn as well):

Grip was brought to the states as a pet but then his owner was too afraid of him to take care of him, which is why Grip lives at CLAWS. He's perfectly healthy but they can't release him because he's not native.

Here's one of the milk jug lanterns:

And here's a hawk of sorts:

There was also an owl and one other bird that we skipped because the line was too long.

After the creature visits came the scarier part of the trail. It was so dark, though, that it almost wasn't spooky because you couldn't see anything that was supposed to be haunting you. We had one tiny flashlight; we'll have to remember to bring more if we go next year.

Benjamin was certainly scared the whole time and I got Rachel screaming when I bent over and grabbed her ankle; she wasn't expecting that! Really, though, it was just about the right amount of scary for our family (i.e. it wasn't remotely scary; just fun).

Here's Andrew and the kids being gobbled by a corn crib monster:

Zoë was in the front carrier the whole time and she thought it was just "ducky."

What a fun way to spend All Hallows' Eve...eve!