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There are some places that make you feel like a kid; that make you feel energetic but are also deeply relaxing. Places worth returning to, with each visit like a deeper participation in the spirit of the place. Places you imagine bringing your kids one day, and starting that lovely progression all over again.

One of them, for my wife and I, is a petting zoo in Virginia Beach: Hunt Club Farm. We first went there in 2017, just having found it on Google Maps. All of it was fun, but the aviary is the thing that got us to come back.

They land on your hands and shoulders. They follow you around the enclosure. If you’re quick, you might even be able to grab and hold one for a couple of seconds. It doesn’t bother them, and they keep nibbling on the seed sticks. It’s never not fun and exciting. As you get older it’s harder to capture that feeling day to day, so I’m thankful for opportunities to do it.

Then there’s the chicken area, where you’re not only allowed but encouraged to pick up the chickens (but not the massive turkeys). They’re usually easy to catch, and they squawk and flap their wings but they’re gentle.

Here are two chickens and a turkey just chilling together:

And some baby fowl of some sort:

The chickens also lay eggs, which employees collect, I think to sell. Neat stuff.

There’s the giant tortoise, the pigs, and the goats—whose enclosure you can enter, but not bring any of the animal food in!

One goat ended up in between an inner and outer gate here; I tried to shoo him back in the pen, but instead a bunch more muscled into the in-between space and almost escaped.

There’s also a cow. A few visits ago there was a calf; I’d like to think it’s the same animal. And a llama, who spit on us once. He doesn’t get any food now.

We’ve been here four times, and as far as I can tell, the animals are healthy and well taken care of. The place is clean, and the people are very friendly. It’s an inexpensive little outing.

Most visitors here are families with kids. Who knows, maybe some of them were going before kids, like us. Sometimes I think about the things that having kids will close off or make harder: international travel, fine dining. One way to diminish that perceived mental cost is to be more like a kid yourself, so you can share in the same things.

And then there’s the tree walk!

I don’t think they had this on our first couple of visits. It’s so cool watching a place grow. It reminds me of a brewery down southwest of Charlottesville. We first found it back in 2016, and it had just opened. Over the years, they’ve enlarge the tasting room, added a pizza oven and patio, and done a lot of landscaping work. It’s a seriously local farm brewery—they claim the actual barley and hops are grown on site—and it’s obviously someone’s dream, coming to fruition slowly but surely in real time. This is why I think local commerce is the opposite of elitism or snobbery.

But the tree walk. Some of the segments go quite high up, and it gives you a neat view of the whole property. There are a couple of houses on site that you can see more clearly from above too. Folks live here, probably owners. The same is true of many of the small wineries in Virginia and probably elsewhere.

Out from the parking lot, this is the view:

A place like this is like a refuge. In 20 years, if it’s still here, we’ll still be coming.

Related Reading:

America’s Urban Heritage: Culpeper, Virginia Edition

Have You Ever Seen a Nursery Like This?

The Screen Where You Started

This Cider Heaven

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