Zoo Day

Today, we went to Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.  Miss Esther had given us two tickets that she and her family decided not to use.  Since Nathan is two, it was a free family day of fun!  {Thank you so much, Miss Esther, Mom-Mom.}  We arrived loaded with sunscreen, lunch, and my camera!  

Here, we had just walked in the entrance and he was just getting a feel for the place :)

One of our first exhibits was the bald eagle.  Did you know that they live only in North America?  I guess I should have known that, since they are the National Bird and all, but I just assumed they probably lived in other countries, too.  Nope.  Anyway, these birds mate for life and build continuing nests.  pretty neat.  We got pretty close to this one.  Nathan seemed interested, too.

These next two shots were early into the adventure.  While we were still figuring out which exhibits to hit, looking at the map, and seeing what times the shows were, Nathan entertained himself by playing hide and seek from daddy.  This first picture shows him spotting Dave.  So cute.

We briefly visited the penguins.  He liked sticking his head in this hole and climbing the stairs behind it.  He pretty much liked this better than the penguins themselves.  

  

Here, he sees the penguins swimming.  We decided they were like Pip.

Nathan and Dave got to ride the carousel.  I don't know if that's spelled right.  Anyway, he rode on a panda.  He wasn't scared at all and seemed to really enjoy it.  Isn't the first picture precious of him and Dave making eye contact while the ride is going around?

 Hi, Mommy!!! :)

Above:  Nathan paused just for a second between exhibits for a quick play of "Chik-fil-a."  Anytime he can find some sort of divider {or fast food counter} he wants to play chik-fil-a and order some fries and nuggets.  We actually didn't play today, he moved from here in the blink of an eye.  But he did suggest it.  Funny kid.

Oh, we went into an "underground"/indoor aquarium.  There were plenty of snakes, or 'nakes, as Nathan calls them.  {He actually started pronouncing the "s" today on the way to the zoo.  It kind of made me sad.  I thought it was so cute the way he would say{put an "s" in front of all of these:} 'wim, 'nake, 'pit, 'tir, 'wing, etc.  Maybe it was just a one time correct pronounciation and he can go back to saying it cutely.  Anyway, that was a tangent.  We saw lots of snakes, fish, even seahorses.  We got to see them feeding the seahorses.  He really was intrigued by the seahorses.  Then, we saw the manatees.  This exhibit is really neat.  You can be underground and see them swim face to face with you, or you can go above ground and see them from on top of the water.  Nathan liked the manatees.

Okay, the otter!  Probably one of my favorite exhibits.  This little guy really lived up to his reputation, as he was playful and entertaining.  He found a shell and was chasing it, dropping it and catching it, and swimming, swirling, and twisting all right in front of us.  Nathan really liked the otter.  Did you know that the otter is commonly mistaken for the beaver, which is only found in extreme Northern Florida?  Did you also know that they have little flaps over their ears and nose to help seal out the water when they are swimming under water? And did you further know that God gave them really neat fur that also helps them with their swimming?

This one was really neat.

Ooooh, the Gators!!!!  They were just piled on top of each other.  And they were fat!  I could probably look at them all day; they are intriguing and they don't even move.  Last year when we visited the zoo as a family, they had a "show" of alligator feeding time.  Well, we asked about that today, but they said that the gators haven't started eating yet....they don't eat during the winter...their metabolisms are so slow because it is so cold for them, that they don't even eat.  They will start feeding them the first week of April.  Isn't that crazy?  I don't know how a few of them stayed SO FAT with no eating for, like, 6 months.  Nathan watched these reptiles for a minute or two but was ready to move on.  Oh, well.

After the gators, we saw flamingos, a Florida panther, wild turkey, and a wolf.  No pics, though.

Lowry Park Zoo has a special area for kids.  It has a train!  whoo hoo.  Right up Nathan's alley.  So, we rode it.  Nathan got to be in the front seat compartment, so he got to ring the bell and be the conductor.  He really liked riding and ringing the bell.  However, the train took really slow laps and he wanted it to go faster.  Guess he inherited some of my "microwave" genes.  Bless his heart.

This is how Nathan got around a lot today.  On Dave's shoulders.  We brought the stroller, but he didn't sit in it once.  He was either running ahead of us or on Dave's shoulders.  

Also, in the kiddie area, there was a mini-roller coaster called the "family" roller coaster.  We waited in line for  about 15-30 minutes...I'm not very good at estimating, thus the strange range of time there...and when we got to the front, the girl working the ride asked how old Nathan was.  We answered, 2.  We were denied a ride.  You have to be three, even though he was tall enough and weighed enough and Dave was going to ride with him.  I was mad.  Dave helped me deal.  Anyway, this picture below was taken while we were waiting.  Dave  is sweet with Nathan.

Another attraction in the kiddie area was the horse ride!!  4 tokens would get you 2.5 laps.  And Nathan loved every bit of it.  The line was a bit long when we decided to do it.  So, Nathan and I went to pet the goats and brush their backs while Dave waited in line for us.  When it was our turn, Nathan allowed the girl working the attraction to mount him up on the horse without any problem.  He wasn't timid or fearful of anything.  He even held on to the saddle.  He didn't even mind the helmet.  It was so cute.  Ba-doomp, ba-doomp, ba-doomp.  That's how the horse ride was.  :)  After his short ride was over, we asked him if he liked it and he put his hands together and said, " More Some?!"  

Next up:  African Safari.  That was the name of the exhibits that had African animals.  The first stop of interest was the giraffes.  He enjoyed seeing the giraffes.  The zebras and giraffes were actually mixed in together on this, so he got to see both at the same time.

 The giraffes must have thought that a monkey had gotten loose and was hanging on their fence. He did this all on his own, by the way!  {see below!}

 looking at giraffes

Then, we saw the white rhioceros.  There were 3.  Two large ones and a baby.  One adult, I call her the mama, and the baby were wading in the pool.  The mam peed so hard, it looked like 4 bathtub faucets flowing at full strenth.  Right there where her baby was.  It was nasty.  Did you know that the white rhinos are called white, because of the width of their mouths?  They are gray in color, not white.  In some African language, the word for width is similar to white and it's name evolved to white rhino from wide rhino.  Normal rhinos have a very pointy mouth, but the white rhinos' mouths are very wide, almost rectangular in shape.  Also, did you know that the rhinos skin is very senstive?  They do not have very much hair and are prone to sunburn.  That is why they wallow in mud pits, to soothe and protect their skin from the damaging harsh sun.  Another interesting note revolving around large animals and their business...right before the rhinos, we saw an elephant eating straw.  He picked it up with his trunk and put it in his mouth.  We were talking about this with Nathan when the elephant took the biggest ----.  It was so gross.  And Nathan was enthralled.  He kept talking about it.  Even on the way home, he chose to talk about this, rather than anything else I just wrote about!  Well, to be honest, he did mention other things, but the elephant pooping was on his mind. Weird and funny.  :)

After the rhinos, I'd had about enough of the camera around my neck, so I took it off and we went to see the monkeys, tigers, and birds.  The monkeys were so entertaining.  They were literally swinging like you would imagine.  It was really neat.  The tigers were cool, too.  It must've been time to eat because they were both pacing.  Lastly, we saw the bird exhibit.  We actually walked into the aviatory and got very close to the colorful birds, whose names I cannot remember.  But they sure were colorful. 

Well, that was an adventurous day.  We came home, ate a little, showered, and then went to church and then the grocery store.   Our friends, Jennifer, Kai, and Leilani Canales are coming over tomorrow and we're going to feed the turtle with them.  

FYI - If you click on any picture, it will bring you to a screen where you can view just the pictures in a slideshow style.  And they are so much clearer.  I don't know why they aren't clear on the post.  They almost look out of focus.  If you click on one, and see the slideshow, the clarity is much improved.