Jumping around snakes

The weekend of July 4, Ridgefield WA has a wonderful festival for families.  I decided as a cheap day out, I'd take D.  For $5, I purchased a wrist band allowing him to have unlimited access to all of the fun which included 4 different bounce houses, food galore (had to pay for that) and a reptile man. 

I found some old and long lost friends there, so we got to chat for a while and catch up which was nice.  D had a blast in all the bouncers!  There was a regular bounce house, a small slide, an obstacle course and a very tall slide.  He bounced from one house to another and in between he rested and watched the reptile show.  HOLY MOLY that was fun!  Not only did D get to, again, hold a giant albino python, but we got to see extremely poisonous snakes - LIVE!  It was AWESOME!  D didn't particularly like knowing that the poisonous snakes were out and about and not behind glass, but I was all over it! 

We saw a rattle snake, a king cobra, and a Gaboon Viper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitis_gabonica (absolutely beautiful snake!). 

Rattle Snake

Albino Python

King Cobra (and no, I'm not petting that snake)

Gaboon Viper

 

 

 

Snakes have never bothered me.  Just about a month ago, while walking along the river walk, the kids were all a twitter b/c there were 3-4 garter snakes slithering around.  Guess what?  I walked into the weeds and picked one up!  It was very small - only about 6-7 inches long and tough to catch! They sure do stink!!  PEEEEEUUUUUU!!  We tried to get a picture, but I didn't have hold of the snake's head, so it swung around and tried to bite me.  Although they are not poisonous, I really don't want to be bitten by a snake - especially a wild one, so I let it go - quickly.  C just about puked knowing/seeing that I was holding a snake.