Lucky Day at the Zoo!

On Monday, December 16th we headed to the Zoo!  We were suppose to have a playdate that day, but it got cancelled last minute.  I figured that we hadn't been to the zoo in awhile and the sun was shining so we headed out.  

It was a cool morning, so one of our first stops was the Natural Encounter building.   It is nice and warm and near the entrance.  Plus there is such a great variety of animals in there including the naked mole rat, piranhas, jelly fish, turtles, sloth, monkeys, bats, and sea otters to name a few.

Here is Maddie relaxing in the tunnel that goes through the piranha tank.

 Maddie and Allie posing near the bat cave.

 Once we walked out of the building we heard this barking noise.  We turned around and were so surprised to see a sea lion out of the water!!  They happen to being doing some training working with the sea lion to teach him to get in the back of the cart himself.  We were less than 10 feet away and there were only about 3 other families that happened upon it.

 So fun to see the sea lion out for a walk!

 Our next lucky part to our zoo adventure led us to the snake and reptile house. Posing for a picture  : )

 The girls, Maddie especially is fascinated with the rattle snakes.  There faces are just inches from them.  Also while we were there the zoo keeper said he was about ready to feed a snake.  Of course the girls wanted to watch.  That basically entailed the zoo keeper holding and moving a dead mouse with tweezers until the snake chomped it!  I wasn't able to get any pictures since I was holding the girls for a better look.  I didn't realize that snakes only eat once a week, so another lucky opportunity that we happened upon.

We headed off to see the chimps.  They had just acquired a few new ones.  However, the interesting part was that in the chimp viewing area was Sam the cow from the children's part of the zoo.  The were doing "animal enrichment".  Well, the chimps saw that cow and came running and hit the glass.  Sam was not so thrilled with that.  He ended up leaving, but was so upset he smashed a zoo keeper into the wall.  Again, no pictures - we thought it was cool to watch, but I was keeping an eye out for the girls and Sam.  I like cows, but Sam has an attitude.  One time I pet him, he swatted my hand with his tail.  His way of communicating I guess.

Next stop the giraffes.  We happened upon them at the 11 am feeding time.  We normally pay the $5 to feed them, since it is a chance to get so upclose. The girls love it!  Here are Maddie (lower left) and Allie ( middle).  Well for your $5 you get 3 pieces of lettuce.  The zoo keepers are usually pretty nice, especially on a lucky day like today, and give us a 4th piece to even things out.  

Maddie

Allie

It was such a beautiful day and the zoo.  After walking down from the feeding area, the volunteer called us back up to the platform.  It was a slow day at the zoo and feeding time was over.  They still had lettuce left, so they called us back up there to help finish off the stack of lettuce.  What a lucky day at the zoo!  Until our next Houston Zoo Adventure!