Yesterday was play around home day. Today I kicked it up a notch and my mom and I took the boys to the zoo.
Back when I was a kid it was the Dreher Park Zoo and I assume I went, but I have zero memories of this zoo. A few vague memories of Dreher Park and a few vague memories of the nearby planetarium but my brain calls up nothing on the zoo, so it was as new for me as for the boys.
And now for 1,792 pictures of our day at the Palm Beach Zoo. (Give or take 1,770)
Toby was all about the carousel until it started moving. Then I had to take him off and just hold him. In my arms he happily watched the carousel animals around him, just didn't want on one.
Doing the Gator chomp by the alligator habitat.
My little chicks in a giant eagle nest.
Only at the Palm Beach Zoo will you come across a statue of some donor's beloved pet. Seriously. I wonder how they would feel about the fact that Blue walked up to this Samoyed and said, "Look, Mommy! A piggie!"
Waiting for the bird show...
Unfortunately this spider was not behind glass or in any sort of arachnid habitat. That guy looked bigger than my hand! Ewwwww.
Toby loved this turtle. He petted it. He talked to it. Super cute.
A little after noon we were at the tiger area. It was just the daddy tiger which we knew because I'd looked up the cubs schedule. On Fridays they don't come till 1pm. We moved on and made it back over to the tiger area at about 12:55. Finally around 1:10 Mama and two cubs came out. Fifteen minutes of waiting when we had been at the zoo since about 9:45 was an eternity especially for Toby. I was able to pacify him by singing Old MacDonald had a zoo... (And in his zoo he had a bear/grrr, tiger/growl peacock/caw etc. etc.) It was worth the wait because Mama and cubs came out playing strong and if you ask Kaden and Blue what their favorite thing at the zoo was, they will both tell you they liked watching the tiger cubs.
And then the boys were able to blow off some steam at the splash pad which we saved for last.
A very happy school-free Friday!
BLUE, I THOUGHT IT WAS A PIG, TOO......
Posted by: FRAN | 10/04/2011 at 09:57 PM
That shot of Toby and the turtle is absolutely hilarious!
Posted by: Jenny | 10/01/2011 at 12:45 AM
Very cool, apparently fairly rare (based on how hard it was to find its picture) spider find! I finally found (I think) his match: http://floridabackyardspiders.com/files/Golden_Silk_Orbweaver_Nephila_clavipes1.jpg
Its genus name "nephila" means "fond of spinning"--as in spinning thread. That's what's known as entomology etymology :) (I can't tell you how much that juxtaposition pleases me!)
Here it is on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver.
Sorry to hijack your neato zoo blog entry to pursue a spider :) I hope you don't mind.
Posted by: Jenny | 10/01/2011 at 12:41 AM