Affenberg Salem

After the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock, we drove to Salem and went to the Affenberg Salem. We got to the Affenberg and saw this. They had about a dozen pelicans and a couple of huge nests. Zack liked the big birds. They were very pretty birds. They made a very funny noise with their mouths. We continued down the trail that looked like this. It was very pretty. But there was just one problem: BEES. For some reason, the bees really like us here. I have never been stung by a bee in my life, yet in the first few weeks here, I got stung by a bee as I was walking along doing nothing. (Seriously, I was even inside!) So we were constantly trying to get the bees away from us. We had to keep moving or they would just circle us. These bees were rather aggressive too. They would land on us. They followed us when we ran from them. But we weren't going to let these stinkin' bees ruin our fun. So we kept going. Finally we got to the main attraction, 200 200 Barbary Monkey. These monkeys aren't caged. They wonder through a 20 acre forest and the trail that we were on goes right through their main habitat! They hand out free popcorn to feed the monkeys. Zack was very excited about this. He told us that he wanted to hug the monkey. Here is the first time we fed the monkeys:
He loved it! It was so dang cute, as you can all see.

Right after we fed that monkey, some of the other monkeys started squealing and yelling at each other. All of the sudden in the tree right by us, a baby monkey started screaming and running down the tree. It kind of scared us. We had no clue there was a baby up there. The monkey that we fed ran to the baby. The second she had her baby, the baby stopped screaming. It was really cute!
We continued down the path. Josh also liked the monkeys. We would ask him "Where is the monkey?" He would look around and point right at one. He even fed one. But really wasn't very amused. He wanted to eat the popcorn and didn't like this guy taking it from him!

The monkey had some really cool trees to live in.
As we were walking through the forest, all of the sudden Zack starts saying "Owie, Owie, Owie, OWWW!!" I look at him and see a dang bee on his finger. Sure enough it is stinging him! We got the bee off. Luckily, it didn't leave it's stinger. I think we caught it soon enough. Before we knew it, his finger was all red and swollen. He was very tough. He just wanted Mom to hold him. But he wanted to keep feeding the monkeys. We walked along and got rid of the popcorn pretty fast. His finger just kept swelling. So we really wanted to get some benadryl in him. We also hurried through the gift shop. We bought him a little monkey because we felt so bad for him. Finally we made it to the car. As I was attending to Zack, I feel this stinging pain in my armpit. Sure enough there is another dang bee! I really think it was smelling my deodorant. Those German bees aren't use to that! This one got me good. The stinger was left in. We pulled it out and fixed it up. It has been 4 days and it still itches like crazy and is red with a bump. I told you it got me good. Needless to say, we got in the car as fast as possible and got out of that place. In the car, Zack's 'baby monkey' kissed his sting better. He hasn't had a problem since.

It really was a cool place. I just wish they did something about those bees. Zack absolutely loved it. He still asks if we can go back to the monkey zoo. He says that there are not bees. When I tell him that there are, he says he isn't scared of them. The monkeys won his heart!