A trip to the menagerie
“And now here in this cage is a beast most ferocious, who’s known far and wide as the spotted atrocious. Who growls, howls and yowls the most bloodcurdling sounds, and each tooth in his mouth weighs at least sixty pounds.”
-Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr Seuss)
When my sister suggested that we take T to the zoo last Friday, she most definitely did NOT mean the very next day. . .But I tend be a bit over-excited regarding things of this nature, and so after a tiny bit of persuasion on my part (consisting of several hours of not-so-very logical reasoning, whining, and pleading) she agreed.
So with a “95% chance of possible thunderstorms very likely” (thus quoth the weathermen), a prayer for dry skies floating heavenward, and hearts brimming with gung-ho and daring-do, my sister and I ventured out bright and early (well, it was actually cloudy, foggy, misty, and early) last Saturday morning to take Little Miss Puff on a trip to the menagerie. . .we had a great day, overcast and warm with a nice little breeze, and the almost-certain threat of rain kept the crowds away.
Teagle had been to the zoo several times during the summer before, and she seemed to enjoy her tiny self just fine, but there is a monumental difference between taking a just-turned-one-year old taking an about-to-turn-two-year-old to the zoo. This time, she was really into the animals, last time it was all about looking at the other kids. She’s much better at walking now, and so we brought her little monkey backpack/leash along to keep her close (she loves the thing, I swear! She picked it out herself!), and she had a blast telling us about all the animals and what they ‘say’. . .over and over again – after making sure that we had seen them, too.
What will now follows is a blow-by-blow series of photos and explanations of our incredibly average, but oh-so-exciting adventure into the re-created humanity-friendly attempt at wilderness. Aren’t you excited?! Great! I am, too. . .
Before we even got to the entrance of the zoo, we stumbled across a representative from the reptile house, showing off her python friend. Puff was throughly entranced by the snake, having never actually seen one before. Though she may seem a bit leery in this shot, in fact it was that she was terribly disappointed that they wouldn’t let her pet it.
A gazzelle-type creature of some sort eating grass. Which T thought was hysterical. And I guess it was… because who eats grass?! She said; “Grass! Yummy!” I’m thinking she may need a refresher on what NOT to eat after that! The things we learn at the zoo. . .
I told her to be careful, or the zookeepers would lock her up like the monkey she appears to be – but she didn’t believe one word. . .
We heard the sound of a polar bear roaring his enclosure. A sign was posted to let us know that it was mating season, and that the bears might be doing what comes naturally to them. . . T was so excited to hear a bear! She ran around the corner to get a glimpse, but found some dude in a bear costume instead. T, having never seen a bear outside of storybooks and cartoons, was entirely convinced that he was the genuine article. She was in love – even after we saw the real bears, she was going on about him! The bear’s ‘keeper’ thought they might have been soul-mates. . .
Checking out the real polar bear . . . who was roaring like a nut, as his mate was locked in the ‘house’
Yet another bear to ‘ROAR’ with!
…playing in the bear tunnel
Random vulture, AKA “very BIG birdy! Tweet tweet!”
Puff was absolutley fascinated by the zebras. . .
I think she would have watched them all day if we had let her!
Next we hit the merry-go-round for T’s very first-ever carousel ride! Somehow, I managed to lose our second set of tokens in the 8 seconds it took us to walk to the ride, so my sister missed her turn. She was a sport about it, and T loved every minute of the carousel! We chose the giraffe because he didn’t go up-and-down – just to keep things simple for her first ever ride. She had a brilliant time playing peek-a-boo with her aunt, who was photographing from the ground! I found the tokens about 3 minutes after we got back home. Guess I’ll save ’em for the baby book!
Peanut butter and jelly – Puffball style:
The friendly elephant – I don’t think T had any idea how big these things really are! She was impressed!
We didn’t get any good pictures of the monkeys, but Puff had fun ‘posing’ with this ape sculpture!
A definite highlight of the day was the giraffe stand. Have you ever fed a giraffe? Puff has. She liked it. A LOT. We spent many dollars on twigs, and I don’t believe that giraffe needed another meal for quite some time after we were done with it!
I mean, really. How cool is that?!
We saw some other animals with funky prints too, of course!
And took a break to check out some of the more aquatic creatures, fishies, turtles, and the invisible to toddler’s eye crocs (not pictured).
Puff loved the penguins!
We finally made it to the petting zoo, where little T made some new fuzzy friends!
. . .sharing secrets with goats!
And, of course, no zoo trip would be complete without a visit with our old turtle friend. . . Naturally, someone was too busy too look at the camera even for a second!
Finally, I’ll leave you with an older image from Puff’s first birthday – and her very first zoo trip ever!
awwwwwww!
Huginn, Muninn, and me 
Huginn, Muninn, and me said,
November 6, 2009 at 2:33 pm
[…] of thunderstorms. Which in MY opinion is PERFECT zoo-trippy weather, as you know if you read the post about our first trip this year. The place was empty. We were there for about 2 hours before we ever saw another patron. It was […]
Fun from last week – a picture post (part 2) « Huginn, Muninn, and me said,
November 6, 2009 at 3:54 pm
[…] of thunderstorms. Which in MY opinion is PERFECT zoo-trippy weather, as you know if you read the post about our first trip this year. The place was empty. We were there for about 2 hours before we ever saw another patron. It was […]