A Day At The Zoo

This is something we have been promising Willow for some time now. But, with looking for houses, me travelling on business, and Andrew's class and homework schedule we just were not able to manage it... but, this weekend was free, the weather forecast *seemed* promising (grumble, grumble) so off we went to the Philadelphia Zoo.

This zoo has marble and bronze statues throughout - mostly life-sized, so you can get a good idea of how tall you would be next to the animal. Here is Andrew and Willow in front of the elephants:



Here is Willow as a baboon. Not much of a stretch ;)



The zoo was celebrating its 'Fall Beastival' this weekend. Local farmers donate their extra fall produce to the zoo for the animals, and almost everywhere we went today we saw animals eating pumpkin. I can't think raw pumpkin tastes very good, but these tortises were going nuts over it - it is the fastest I have ever seen them move!



Andrew and the pouty baboon. Three minutes prior there were about 10 kids climbing all over this statue in front of the new big cats exhibit... and one of the zoo workers came and yelled at them (and their parents) that this was dangerous. Willow was upset because she wanted to climb up there like all the other kids.



This was the best photo op - this juvenile gorilla was right up against the glass looking at Willow, but Willow freaked out and didn't want to get anywhere near the gorilla. The only way she would even sit this close is if Daddy held her:



But then she was more then willing to sidle up to the bronze gorilla outside the primate house:



She liked the bears as well:



Our zoo trip was cut short when it started raining... on a day that the weather was forecasted to be 65'F and sunny!!! We went quickly through the big cats exhibit and promised Willow we would be back to take a more in-depth look at a later date.

And now for the close-ups on the finished Christmas presents...




No guesses because I won't confirm or deny anyway!