One day in mid-October we had a bit of a warm-up of sorts, so after Mollie and I picked Baylor up from school we all headed down to the zoo for a little fun. They had opened up the new funicular since our last visit, and I knew Baylor was itching to take a ride. I did not know, however, that it costs $3.00 per person ONE WAY, so we only rode it up; I was not prepared to sink $18.00 into a glorified elevator ride.
It was a pretty slow ride up, but with the leaves changing colors it was quite pretty.
I was pleasantly surprised at how cool the kids were about not taking the trip back down, and we started making our way back down to the main part of the zoo on the gorgeous trail they've blazed through the trees.
Our first stop was the frog room, but it was quite noisy and all they wanted to do was push the buttons to hear the frogs croaking so I quickly ushered them out of there.
Of course by that point they were famished, so we found a picnic table and had a snack.
We next visited the otter, a perennial favorite, and this time proved to be no different. At first he was out of the water checking things out ...
... but while the kids were enjoying some raisins on the bench, he dove in and gave them a show. The water was quite murky, though, and I couldn't get any good pictures.
After his brief swim, he headed back up to the rocks to sun himself and dry off.
We soon moved on and stopped by to see the bears. Whereas the other animals were up and about way more than usual, the bears were quite sedate. It looked like they were about to go into hibernation mode, so we moved on pretty quickly.
We next visited the mountain lion and were greeted by him/her personally. I have never seen this particular animal so active and so up close, and it was a real treat.
Seriously, the cat was about five feet away from us. It was amazing and beautiful.
The kids were decidedly less impressed and moved on to the informational door flaps about animal tracks.
But I just couldn't get enough of the mountain lion.
We hemmed and hawed over our next move; neither kid is wild about the penguin area, likely because it is so noisy, so the aquarium has never held much appeal, but Baylor is a creature of habit and didn't want to miss it. So off we went. As per usual, we flew by the penguins and landed in front of the giant fish tank. Mollie commented that the fish looked "sad". Upon closer inspection, I understood why ... all their mouths are turned downward.
Good observation, little lady!
Finally it was time for lunch. Ordinarily I would have packed us a lunch, but this was a spur-of-the-moment sort of trip so we headed over to the concession stand. Unfortunately they have changed their offerings quite a bit since the last time I ate at the zoo, and they now only offer pizza or hot dogs. We opted for the former and waited a bit while it cooked.
The pizza was okay, about as good as zoo concession stand pizza is going to get, but the kids ate it with gusto.
Of course, there were gum ball machines filled with gum and candy and toys only a few feet away from out table, and it was tough for me to deny them a cheap treat after they'd done so well with the impromptu lunch. Mike and Ikes, anyone?
After finishing lunch, we made our way to the nocturnal animal/reptile house, and I was pleasantly surprised at how active the animals were at that time of day. The snakes, in particular, were up and about, and while it really freaked the kids out at first, it was awesome to see them actually moving.
Next up we visited the African animal exhibits. The chimpanzees were very mobile that day, and we got to watch them walk around a bit. Of course, the kids got pretty distracted when we came upon a little girl of about 5 or 6 who was there with her mom and could not stop commenting on how "gross" the chimps' butts were.
We moved on from her as quickly as I could get the kids to, and we next visited the lion exhibit. Instead of heading to the glass window on the ground level first, we actually made the climb all the way up to the lookout above ... only to find that the lion was resting right in front of the ground-level window. Such is life. Either way, the kids were totally unimpressed by the lion resting six feet away from them, so we made our way to another exhibit. Of course, we had to try out the drums a little first.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the flamingos were still there, and though some of them were napping we at least got to see them up close.
Of course, when one flamingo, who was very awake, started creeping his way towards us, the kids were ready to leave.
Much to their chagrin, I started ushering them toward the zoo exit. But first we got to say hi to one of my favorite zoo animals, the capybara. It must have felt pretty warm to him that day because we found him in the middle of a swim! It was pretty awesome to see him paddling and diving about.
The kids were pretty upset to leave, but I took that as a sign that they'd had a lot of fun and I'm glad that our last visit to the zoo for the year went so well. Now we have lots to look forward to for next year!
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