interesting trip to the zoo

It seems that the last few times we've tried to visit the zoo, the weather has not cooperated. Well today was no acception. Katie and Anna had an early release day, so I thought it would be fun to take a little field trip. When I saw the forecast yesterday, I thought to my self, "seriously?". We choked through a foggy, misty morning, and drove through random spurts of light showers, but we went anyway. And were glad we did. The sun came out, and it actually got quite warm (which equals extreme humdity!).

We had a few unique things happen while we were at the zoo. After greeting the flamingos, we came upon Mister Grizzly Bear. He didn't look too intimidating, based on his size, but he was pacing eagerly along the front edge of his habitat. When he saw that a small crowd had gathered, I think he actually stopped and posed for us. And smiled at us. Do grizzlies smile? Of course I didn't have my camera in my hand, so I missed it, but here is a good shot of the girls (very typical of Bethany these days.)

Next stop - Komodo Dragons - both were out, but not moving much. We proceeded into the indoor reptilian area, on the heels of some of the zoo staff. Ooh! Are we gonna get to see something cool? The Reticulated Python, whom I'm guessing was at least ft. long, was shedding, and they were going in to clean things up. One guy walked around with large tongs picking up all the previously shedded scraps. The other gal hooked up the rubber hose and proceeded to hose the python down. Full blast. In the face. Oh my! Are you serious? I guess because it's so big, it doesn't move that fast? And she was trying to agitate it so it would move around and loosen up more of it's skin? I don't know. That's just my guess. Anyway, we stood and watched for about minutes. Anna was the first to say she was ready to go.

The very next exhibit we came upon were the Gibbons. There were a few of them close to the front and very active. Right before our eyes, one of the smaller ones (we assumed it was a baby) squeezed RIGHT THROUGH THE CHAIN LINK FENCE! I'm glad it was just a little monkey, but I still made the girls get back. Plenty back. I was surprised there wasn't more scurrying about. It actually took a minute or two for a zoo employee to show up. And do you know what she did? She started calling it be name and telling him to get back in there. The same way I would talk to one of my children. I think it must not of wanted to stray to far from it's parents, which was good. But after a minute of so of positive discipline, it went right back in the way it came out. Amazing! I wish my kids were that obedient. :)

The next little while was normal zoo stuff. Cats. Birds. Rhinos. Giraffes. Zebras. More birds. Our zoo sure has a lot of birds. I suppose we were fortunate that it wasn't until we were on our way out that we were showered with a white spray from above. Way above. When Katie Anna and I looked at each other, it was all over our hair and arms. Just a light spray, but still enough to TOTALLY GROSS YOU OUT! Once we cleared the bullseye area, I looked up and saw a crane, way up high. As I said, this happened on the way out. Thank goodness we had antibacterial wipes in the car. Yuck! (I'd like to dedicate this last paragraph to my friend Deborah.)