Virginia Safari Park

We went to Virginia Safari Park on 4th July.

Brief Summary
Place: Virginia Safari Park.
Location: Virginia.
Distance: 184 miles.
Members: Me and my wife.
Transport: our own car.
Duration: 2 hour 50 mins.

Experience:

On 4th July we started around 8:30 am from home.Had our breakfast in the car. We reached safari park around 11:32 am.The ticket counters look like toll gates,we got our tickets. There are two parks to see ,those are safari park and village park.In both parks we can feed the animals. At the entrance of safari park we saw some different kinds of animals(name-Llama)which we never saw. After that we saw many Ostrich,some of them are too big.

They come close and put their neck into our car for food. We saw peacocks,different types of pigs,camels and other different animals which we never saw before.After that we saw many and different types of deer. Some deer have stripes on their body,some have dots,some have big horns,some have different colours and some are too big compared to regular deer and some are too small.There are Bisons also along with deer .Bisons are big and strong animals. This is the first time we saw the Bisons too close and they came near to our car and put their neck into our car,trying to eat the food we got for them. But they do not harm, we just enjoyed it. In the safari park there are deer everywhere,we will be seeing them throughout the safari. After the Bisons we saw Zebras,they are 5 to 6 in number not more than that. Next we saw Yaks and Watusi.

They have big horns which are too strong and they are almost similar to cow. We can touch their horns they do not harm. They tried to put their head into our car but not  possible for them because of their long horns. After Yak ,Watusi we saw Scotch Highland cattle. We never saw them before and they are also similar to cows,they dosen't have horns but they have big tails. We also saw White Rhinos. This is the end of safari park. we enjoyed a lot with animals. Next we went to see village park. Village park is almost like a zoo. we saw little deer and Elks.We saw various types of monkeys and penguins. Monkeys are very active and they are  doing stunts with using ropes and grills. After that we went to see Budgies Adventure Aviary.

There we saw so many varieties of Australian budgies. They are like parrots but so small and cute. They are in various colours. There we can feed them with bird sticks.The budgies fly onto your hand and eat food if you have bird sticks. That was very interesting. After the budgie adventure Avairy we had our lunch at 2:00 pm in the cafe at village park. Next we saw Bengal tiger(khan)and white tiger(leela). After that we saw wolves and Giraffes. Giraffes were so long. Some baby Giraffes were also there. Two of them came close to us. we fed them. Then we went to reptile house and saw various reptiles. Next we saw penguins. Being very hot the penguins were sliding down into the water and were swimming.

That was so much fun to watch. Penguins are so funny creatures. We liked Penguins and also they are so adorable compared to other animals. It was 3:15 pm we completed entire park. Virginia Safari Park, we enjoyed a lot and saw many crazy and funny things animal's do. We liked it very much. Next, we started from safari at 3:15 pm to Zoo. Around 3:30 pm we entered Zoo. There were mountain tiger,bears,crocodile and also Bengal tiger and white tiger,different types of deer in the Zoo.

First we saw mountain tiger then tigers, crocodile and deer in the same order. Being afternoon all animals were sleeping. But we are lucky in other ways as that was the feeding time of white tiger and mountain tiger.At last minuite we saw the caretaker with plates of meat going to feed them. We saw feeding the tiger. The white tiger takes 12 pounds of meat per day and mountain tigers take each 4-5 pounds per day. At 4:15 pm we completed the Zoo and started from there. Around 7:30 pm we reached home. Safari and Zoo are very good places. We enjoyed a lot and had lot memorable moments. All is Well.
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Spicy Aloo Mutter

Ingredients
1) Potatoes (Aloo)- 2 large
2) Green Peas (Mutter)- 1 1/2 cup
3) Tomatoes - 2
4) Onion - 1
5) Ginger - 10 gms
6) Garlic - 4 loves
7) Cumin seeds - 5 gms
8) Red Chilli Powder - 1 tea spoon
9) Bay Leaves - 1
10) Cinnamon stick - 1
11) Coriander Leaves - 6
12) Gharam masala - 1 tea spoon
13) Green chillies - 6
14) Cloves - 5
15) Peanut Powder - 1 tea spoon (Grind Roasted Peanuts)
16) Turmeric Powder - 1 tea spoon
17) Oil - 2 Table Spoons
18) Salt - as per taste

Procedure:
1. Take Oil in a pan and heat it. Add Cumin Seeds to it. Once they splutter add bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick and heat it for a minute.
2. Add finely chopped Onion pieces to it and heat until they turn into light golden brown.
3. Add Ginger, Garlic and then mix properly and heat.
4. Prepare Tomato Puree from the tomatoes, add it to the pan and heat until the mixture gets thick and oil starts oozing out.
5. Add to it Turmeric powder, Red Chilli Powder, Peanut Powder, Salt and mix thoroughly.
6. Add Green Peas to it and genetly mix them and pour some water for easy mixing.
7. Add Potatoes(cut into small cubes) along with water until the potatoes are just immersed and ready for boiling.
8. Slit the Green Chillies along their length and add to the above mixture and boil until Potatoes and Green Peas become soft. It might take 12-15 minutes , keep the flame in medium for uniformity.
9. Add Gharam Masala and finely chopped Coriander to the boiled mixture and mix thoroughly.
10. Hot Spicy Aloo Mutter is ready to Serve.
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Masala Dal Fry

Ingredients
1) Toor Dal - 1 cup
2) Chana Dal - 1 cup
3) Tomato - 2 large
4) Onion - 1 medium
5) Ginger - 15gms
6) Garlic - 4 loves
8) Red Chilli Powder - 2 tea spoons
9) Ghee - 1 tea spoon
10) Oil - 1 table spoon
11) Red Chillies - 1
12) Gharam masala - 1/4 tea spoon
13) Coriander Powder - 1/4 tea spoon
14) Turmeric powder - 1/2 tea spoon
15) Cummin seeds (Jira) - 15 gms
16) Coriander leaves - 6 leaves
17) Salt - As per taste

Procedure
1. Wash Toor and Chana Dal and boil them in pressure cooker along with salt and turmeric powder and keep the mixture aside.
2. Take oil in a pan and heat it. Once the oil is heated add 10gms of Cummin Seeds.
3. Once the seeds splutter add chopped Garlic and fry until the garlic pieces turn light brown.
4. Add Chopped Ginger and fry the ingredients for 2 minutes.
5. Add finely chopped Onions and close the lid and fry them until the onions turn white colour.
6. Add chopped tomatoes and mix the ingredeints thoroughly and fry them until the tomoatoes become soft.
7. Add coriander leaves , mix them well and close the lid for 2 minutes.
8. Add red chilli powder, salt, gharam masala and coriander powder. Mix them throroughly , reduce the flame and heat them for 3 minutes.
9. Add boiled Dal(toor and chana) and mix well.
10. Add ghee to a small pan and heat it. Once heated fry red chilli in it.
11. Add the rest cummin seeds to the ghee and once they splutter add it to the dal mixture.
12. Hot Masala Dal Fry is ready to Serve.
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Riverbend Park

     We had done hike to Riverbend Park on 1st July . It is located in Great Falls, Virginia State.

Hike Location
Name: Riverbend Park
Distance: 20 miles from Herndon(approx)
Total hiking distance: 4.5 miles.
Elevation Gain: 300 ft
Hike Team:  my wife and me.

Hiking Experience: Started around 8:36 am in the morning. Reached our destination around 9:06 am. It was a small hike of 4.5 miles and decided to complete soon and reach home by noon.It was cloudy when we started the hike.

There were so many cars in the parking lot as this trail was famous around the region and it passes by the side of the potomac river. The trail starts through the picnic area and then slowly leads to the jungle. the trail is very narrow and covered with small trees on both sides. There were so many Virginia native trees along the trail and their names were also put up on the boards. We could see the potomac river to our right and tall huge trees to our left. Soon the trail got wider and then we were in the middle of the jungle.The steep of the trail increased. Slowly we hiked further and reached a small wooden bridge. we continued our blue blazed trail and then took left onto Red blazed Bootlegger trail. We crossed a pond (almost looks like a Moor) to our right. The trail has so many bends and curves and ups and downs. We climbed small wooden steps on our trail. The path led us to Meadow and it has bird houses to its left. we saw a deer in the meadow running into the midst of the farm.

We then reached the entrance of the park , crossed the road and continued hike on our trail. There were pink ribbons on the trail which guided us on the trail. We hiked down further and reached the intersection of another trail where there was a beautiful farm house. We came across many trails on our hike. We had biscuits and grapes around 10:20 am  and then resumed our hike around 10:38 am. Sun came up and could feel the heat even though the path was covered with trees. We then completed the loop and reached the entrance of the park and retraced our steps back to parking lot.  We have met many fellow hikers along the trail and thoroughly enjoyed the hike. We reached the parking lot around 12:00 pm. Done some exercises and left for home around 12:10 pm. Reached home around 12:45 pm. All is well.

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