Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!

 

So we didn’t really see tigers or bears, but we did get to see a lot of animals on our trip to Oz—I mean the NC Zoo—this past weekend. We’ve been planning this trip awhile. The zoo is actually only a 2-hour drive from our house, but it has to be an all-day adventure because there’s a lot to see & do. We wanted the weather to be just right. It turned out to be a little cold but still a sunny, nice day. We went with our friends Nathan & Laura. Brett got the day off work.

 

The first half of the park is North American animals. First stop: the seals. They were playing around with us at the window.

 

Then we saw bison.

  

The aviary was a favorite. The birds got so close. Leah & Andrew loved this little quail.

  

We rode a bus to get back to the parking lot, where we had a picnic lunch. This was, of course, Andrew’s favorite part. He had a fit every time we had to get off. (Of course no nap & a whole day of walking made this even worse!)

Oh, Abigail was there, too. She had it rough!

  

After lunch we went on an African safari.

We found the baboons rather disgusting.

 

The ostrich came by to say hello.

 

The chimp posed for us.

 

The gorillas were one of our favorites. They had two babies that were only a few months old. The mommies would swoop up their babies & throw them on their backs to carry them around. This little one grabbed on to his mommy’s leg & she dragged him around. They were so cute!

 

We stopped at Lemur Island for Abigail to take a milk break.

There was only one lion, but he was huge. And he ROARED for us.

We were bummed to find out many of the animals were off exhibit because it was too cold. We didn’t get to see giraffes or bears. And we almost didn’t get to see zebras or elephants. We saw the zebras on our way to the tram to leave. And then, we asked the driver if the elephants had come out yet, and they had! So we rushed to see them. There was one out & he was leaving shortly after we got there! Leah said he was her favorite.

 

We definitely plan to go back again, and the visit will probably be different, since there was so much we still didn’t see. It’s definitely a long day trip. I know the kids won’t soon forget all they saw!