Things to Do in Zephyrhills

The husband and wife owners of Giraffe Ranch wake up each morning to the squawks, chirps, and growls of rhinoceroses, hippos, ostriches, and a menagerie of other exotic animals. After feeding their giraffes, they tend to the cattle and collect eggs from their free-range chickens that cluck across their 47-acre combination of a working organic farm and a wildlife preserve accredited by the Zoological Association of America. Encompassing four ecosystems, the preserve sprawls under 400-year-old oak trees and across native orchards into wetlands filled with nesting sandhill cranes. With the aid of their son, the owners lead tours through habitats for endangered or otherwise extinct African and South American animals, walking past pens of African crested porcupines, guinea pigs, fossa; as well as lemurs that guests can feed by hand or T-shirt cannon. Their tours never follow the same path, instead changing to skirt around grazing goats or to meet a brood of newly hatched baby ostriches.

Not content to simply lead guests on relaxing strolls, guides also load passengers into four-wheel-drive safari trucks—custom built by the owner after vehicles used in Africa—or onto the backs of camels for extended preserve tours that showcase larger game such as Indian rhinoceroses, pygmy hippopotamuses, llamas, and antelopes. Guides also steer tours toward feeding times, encouraging passengers to pass leaves to the preserve's namesake giraffes from the truck. An onsite shop boasts shelves of glass art, plush lemurs and giraffes, and T-shirts—many designed by the owner's wife—alongside handcrafted African decor. Shop staffers also proffer organic fertilizer, organic free-range eggs, and grass-fed beef harvested on the farm.

Within the tight-quartered confines of the two outdoor speedball fields, paintballers duck and dive behind inflatable obstacles and blanket the opposition in one of 10 different paints such as Marballizer. When players desire a more methodical game, they advance on BlitZkrieg's three woodsball fields. During woodsball play, teams slink through narrow paths lined with dense green shrubbery, using trees for cover. Amid the jungle-like environment, combatants chuck paint grenades at distant enemies and plant paint mines in strategic locations that explode in geysers of pigment. Once everyone's clothing is coated in abstract art, teams can come to a truce over pizza, philly cheesesteaks, hotdogs, and the fact that everyone's veins pumps the same blue paint.

After a year in law school, Jason Bradstreet felt unsatisfied. A mission trip led him into a period of introspection that caused him to rediscover his passion for playing Division 1 tennis. Channeling this athletic experience into organizing classes that might help children to discover the glee of good-natured competition, Jason founded Bradstreet Sports.

Even as his staff of certified and licensed coaches mentors kids aged 3 and older in soccer, tennis, and martial arts, Jason aims to expand the world of athletes with a range of arts and humanities classes. Lithe dancers lead students in modern jazz and hip-hop dance, sharing facilities with performing- and visual-arts classes taught by actual private-school teachers and opera courses taught by actual phantoms. As pupils rush by clutching martial-arts trophies, instructors aim to imbue their charges with life skills and an appreciation for skills they might not have otherwise discovered.

Programs take place at a range of sites such as the Citrus Park Christian School, where a multipurpose covered court shelters children and instructors from the sun and keeps birds from discovering volleyball. Enrichment classes commence in the school's science lab, computer labs, and art studios, with performance classes held in the school's expansive sanctuary.

With its plush couch and bookcase stocked with esoteric objects, the stage at Side Splitters Comedy Club might make audiences feel as though they’re watching the evening’s comedian in their own living room, right down to the emcee who keeps announcing what’s about to happen. The homey stage’s brick walls and off-kilter neon sign have played host to numerous local comedians, as well as talents such as Tom Arnold and Gilbert Gottfried.

For more than two decades, Pam Roush has been hosre-training equivalent of a Harvard professor. Her alumni regularly accumulate blue ribbons, awards, and credits such as the UPHA Chapter 16's "Horse of the Year" award. Notable former students include CH My Heart, Top Star Willie, and Galahad's Gold Mine, which all received the "Best of Breed" honor from Saddle and Bridle after spending time under her tutelage.

On Avalon Stables’ 30 acres of open pastures, Pam and her assistant trainers provide boarding and training services for horses, as well as lessons for riders of all ages. They address individual riding goals during private lessons, encourage camaraderie through group lessons, and introduce to riding at children's camps, where kids bond with horses that tell ghost stories.

Start Skydiving owes its ranking as the number-one skydiving location on dropzone.com to its staff of master skydivers, pilots, and instructors. The team navigates its aircraft thousands of feet in the air for tandem or AFF solo skydives, and the jumpers help novices in obtaining their own USPA B, C, or D licenses. Newly inducted divers can gear up with Start Skydiving’s online store, which carries everything from altimeters and flight-specific shirts to tickets for rides on hot-air balloons or twin-engine pterodactyls.