The Ostrich Festival

For the last 21 years, the city of Chandler has been putting on an ostrich festival. This year's festival was this last weekend. Since Brent and I were privileged to have Julie with us on her birthday, we made her come with us. What a fun birthday activity!! Brent has been to the Ostrich Festival before and has even ate an ostrich burger. So while we were there, he made sure that Julie and I ate one too. They taste like hamburger just much leaner and much healthier. Here is what we saw:

Right when you walk into the huge festival, the ostriches are there to greet you. There were several ostriches in a pen that would come right up the side and try to eat whatever you put close to the fence. Their feathers are VERY soft and fluffy! These birds are very tall.

However, their two toed feet aren't very attractive. Did you know that the ostrich is the only two toed bird?

This is our first ostrich race we watched. The "jockeys" rode on the ostrich's back. It was fun to watch them race around the track. We also watched an ostrich chariot race where the jockey rode in a small lightweight chariot behind the large bird. They had several other races including kids chasing an emu around the track, chicken racing with little kids herding their chicken across the line (chickens are not very cooperative) and there was also a camel race. I have video clips of these too. If you really want to see them, send me an email!

Next we went to an exotic petting zoo. There was an unique assortment of animals. My favorite was the Jacob Sheep. (That's its real name.) This crazy sheep has four horns coming out of his head. Look at the picture closely: There are two large horns coming out of the top of the head and two horns coming out each side of the head. Pretty crazy!

This is NOT a cow! This really is an exotic animal. Can you guess what it is? This is a yak. Have you ever seen a yak before? I had no idea that they looked just like a cow but have a ton more hair.

The last place we checked out was the Famous Flores Thrill Show. This crazy guy and a super crazy gal are circus performers and do very dangerous stunts. The coolest stunt they do is in the "Globe of Death." This stunt is performed by having two motorcycles driving on the inside of a 14 foot metal "globe" at the same time. It is hard to imagine that the two cyclists didn't hit each other. Watch this video clip only if you can handle the suspense and thrill of EXTREME danger!

There were many other super cool things to do and see at the Ostrich Festival. We would have loved to have had Mitchell and Grant with us. They would have had an incredible time on all of the carnival rides, watching the demolition derby and experiencing all the other awesome things! And of course, they would have had to eat an ostrich burger too!