Saturday, Sept. 20th, we checked one more thing off of our pre-move bucket list, the zoo! My adorable cousin, Elisabeth, was up from college, and they were probably going to go to the zoo anyway, so we made it a date. It worked out quite well for us since my uncle, Steven, got a membership (the expensive variety that lets you bring lots of people and have free rides on the carousel and train!), so we met up with them and got in for free.
First up was the new African Savannah. I love the new stuff at the zoo :) We saw the giraffes, ostriches, guinea fowl, and zebras. I think Henlie's new favorite animal is the zebra :) Funny story... okay, two of them. There were a ton of guinea fowl, and a bunch of them all ran up like they were going to gang up on a zebra. The zebra didn't care. Later, one of the ostriches decided to chase a zebra. That zebra got out of the way! It was entertaining :) Okay, maybe not for the zebra...
Ostrich and Zebras
Daddy and Henlie checking out the giraffes.
We utilized her new harness backpack. It works quite well, and she loves to wear it!
Then we
had to walk around to see the lionesses. However, we were side-tracked
by the Peregrine Falcon that was hanging out. If you know me, you know I
love falcons and hawks. They are such majestic birds!
Peregrine Falcon
Apparently they have way better hearing than humans, and something spooked him a little...
Henlie watching the lionesses.
The iconic lion fountain is back!
Of course I had to get a picture of Henlie with it :)
Photo op with the lion statues!
Henlie watching the Colobus Monkeys
Finding another monkey with Great Uncle Steven
Checking out the elephants with Steven
Photo op with the giant elephant!
I don't know what kind of monkey this is, which is unfortunate, because he/she has a promising career in opera.
Climbing up the lighthouse
Found her on the observation deck
Waiting our turn to go down the slide
She made it!
Steering the boat.
Eagles :)
Trying to find the otters
Checking out the log with her new friends.
Matt was all excited to see the sea lions and seals, but their pool was undergoing some repairs, so it was empty and they weren't out :( After a quick potty stop, we backtracked to the World of Flight Bird Show. There was no way I was going to miss the bird show before we moved! It's one of my favorite parts of the zoo. Henlie was super wiggly while we were waiting for it to start. It made me nervous because you can't be all up and everywhere in the middle of the show because birds are flying all around you!
Family selfie at the bird show!
She finally sat down for a second, so I had to document it ;)
It probably didn't help that the bird show was at 1pm, which is during nap time.
Poco!
Freedom and Liberty, the bald eagles
Lucky for us, the kid on the inside zebra decided he didn't want the zebra, so we did a quick switch. Just as I was about deciding I was going to ride the anteater, the outside zebra also opened up, so Elisabeth took that one. Yeah, that's right. We totally rode the carousel ;) Unfortunately, Matt's pictures didn't work out so well since Henlie was on the inside. Oh well. We had fun.
She was pretty excited to get to, "Ride Zebra!"
Cousin selfie!
Henlie was petting her zebra.
She made Elisabeth happy when she wanted to go to Bebbis :)
How cute is this?
Elisabeth and Ryker helping Henlie walk up the hill to the train.
Family selfie!
Group selfie!
Matt, Henlie, Elisabeth, Steven, Ryker, Me
She was a bit sad when our ride was over and we had to get off, but she quickly forgot about that when we stopped in the main plaza and she got to play with the water ball. :) Steven, Elisabeth, and Ryker were done for the day, so they were heading home. After some wet hugs, we headed back down to the Beastro for some lunch.
Unfortunately, Matt had dropped his car off for an oil change on our way up, so we had limited time for the rest of the zoo. We wandered around the outside of the Great Apes exhibit, but no one was outside. I wish we'd gone through the inside real quick :( The male Orangutan, Eli, had just passed away like a week or so before. However, the Zoo did post on Facebook a few days after our trip that Eve and Acara (Eli's mate and daughter) were starting to perk back up after his passing.
We didn't even stop in the small animals building, instead, opting to check out the Asian Highlands and the big cats. Typically, the middle of a warm day is not a good time to see active kitties. And this was true of all of them, except the tiger. The tiger was enjoying some pool time, playing with his ball, sitting in the waterfall, and having a swim. I made my way up next to the glass to fix Henlie's skirt when the tiger decided to swim right next to us. Like, pressing against the glass next to us. It was awesome :)
Cooling off.
Watching the tiger.
You can also see why I needed to fix her skirt haha
Sleepy Rizzo.
On our way back out of the zoo, we walked by the otters again. We had better luck seeing them, so we stopped and watched for a minute. We also checked in on the eagles, and then made our way out of the park, past the singing monkeys. Only this time, most of the noise came from the humans mimicking the monkey. lol
We found the otters!
Henlie watching the otters.
Eagles again :)
On our way out, Henlie wanted to hold her own leash lol
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