The Zoo

This past week has been very nice, so we decided to go to the zoo. It was warm enough that the girls only wore their jackets. We were able to walk around and eat lunch outside without freezing. It was not very crowded, which I loved. I can only imagine how packed it is in the summer.

The zoo turned out to be pretty fun. The girls were pretty well behaved and I think some of the animals like the cold because they seemed fairly active.

My camera was having problems (or I was because I don't really know how to work my camera) so the pictures aren't great. I don't normally just take pictures of animals, but this gives you an idea of what we saw. A red panda, which I think Shifu was in Kung Fu Panda
A panda bear, I think this was the mom. The baby panda, who isn't really a baby anymore, is getting sent back to China in Feb. I think.

The elephants

A gorilla with her baby on her back. I tried to get a good picture but couldn't. They were probably the highlight of the zoo. The baby was so cute riding around on her back or clinging to her stomach. The mom would even just sit cradling the baby like a newborn. The mom paraded in front of the window for awhile just like she was showing off her baby to everyone.

It seems even gorilla's need a little privacy with their babies some time. The mother gorilla pulled this sack over her and her baby and just sat there for a minute.

Maren roaring like the lion.

The kids liked the amphibians and reptiles exhibit. They liked looking at all the frogs, snakes, etc.

We didn't even make it to all the animals, but after a little over two hours we were done. At this point I was really wishing we had driven. It took almost an hour to get there on the metro by the time we changed trains and walked the 1/3 a mile from the metro stop. Parking would have cost $25.00, but since the zoo was free and it wasn't busy we should have driven. I would still have to say it was our most successful excursion yet.