Another day at the Zoo

The nice thing about a zoo membership is that you can go whenever you want to, and it doesn't have to be a killer day, because you can always go back to see what you missed. We went on Monday, the first full day without school. Of course, we were not the only ones with that idea, so the zoo was a little crowded.

The kids were a little excited:



We got free tickets to the dinosaur exhibit with our membership. The exhibit was a lot of fun. Here are DD2, P & C making the dinosaur roar, breath, and move his head and tail.



These things were so scary looking, I was really glad they were only fake.



Here's our primates playing with another primate:



Near the wading birds pool they were showing off a Red-tail hawk. I was interested to see jesses; I have read about them in many books, but it was interesting to see how they actually worked. They are small leather anklets around the bird's feet with leather straps hanging down which the keeper holds on to. This bird is a little upset because it kept getting dive-bombed by the resident grackles, who of course were not happy with this predator in their neighborhood.



We had lunch in a different restaurant, one we had never been to before. In the dining room they had several weavings hanging up that were absolutely gorgeous. This one is birds and bugs; there was another that was birds and fish. I just love the color progression on this one, from darker gray around the outside, through gradual color changes to light at the center. The butterflies in the corner are really beautiful.



We had a wonderful day, and got home without even feeling complete exhaustion. We still have our tickets for the Dolphin show too, so we will have reasons to visit again soon.