Spending a Day With Friends

Well, hello there!

It's been a while, no?

Life has been so busy. Sophie was pretty sick at the beginning of last week and we even made a trip to the emergency room Tuesday night after Soph suffered an allergic reaction to an antibiotic.  It was scary and I was so relieved and happy when we got past that.  This long weekend came just in time.  Today the weather was mild and sunny.  After breakfast Alain had the great idea to go to the zoo. It was late but we packed up everyone quickly and drove the hour and a half to get there.

SO GLAD WE DID.

The North Carolina Zoo is an amazing place. The best zoo I've ever been to.  It's the most friendly to animals, attempting to mimic their natural habitats and giving them places to hide and rest if they get stressed out by all the people.  Some visitors complain because they don't get to see all the animals they'd hoped to see.  As for me, I care about the animals infinitely more than my selfish needs to feel entertained. Don't we go to zoos to learn more about the animals?  I'll never like zoos but, as long as they exist, I will feel better about going to one that tries to do what's best for the animals.  And, as you can see from some of our pictures, we saw plenty!!!!

{Chilean Flamingo}

{Blue-Naped Mousebird}

{Scarlet Ibis}

{Eclectus Parrot}

{Western Lowland Gorillas ~ look closely at the female on the left to see one of the baby gorillas hanging out on Momma's arm}

{Nkosi, the Silverback Male ~ he was sitting right in the sun and, of the 20 or so pictures I took, I couldn't manage to get one without that sunny glare ~ still, how gorgeous is he?}

{Acacia, the smallest female in the group and the only one without a baby ~ she shared a moment with Clara who stood right at her level}

{Two of the Momma chimps watch over as their babies play}

 

{Two of the chimp babies playing & swinging}

{Amazing little baby chimp exploring the world}

{A great view of the baby giraffe}

Three chimpanzee babies, two gorilla babies and one giraffe baby.  Pretty amazing stuff.

And the Aviary there is certainly one of the best I've ever visited. My girls loved it as much as we did and that makes me pretty happy. In the years that I volunteered at this zoo, I usually experienced kids complaining to their parents and asking to see something more exciting!!!  What?

Today just happened to be Clara's very first trip to the zoo.  Silly us.....we were so busy taking photos of the animals that we forgot to take a picture of Clara!

On the way home, Alain asked Sophie if she'd had a fun time at the zoo today, and she replied (I do quote), "AMAZING!".  Our hearts soared. Any parent reading here can understand that!

NC Zoo, we'd missed you!