Our Trip Today to the Zoo...

The web site address for the zoo is: http://www.clemetzoo.com/.

The link to the map of the zoo is: http://www.clemetzoo.com/tour/index.asp.

The day was REALLY good. To begin with, we didn't leave the house until 12:30. Cassi was in school until noon. We stopped at Wendy's for lunch. The story of my lunch adventure lives on this blog too (about the crack-uum). We ended up getting to the zoo after 1:30. Luckily, mom purchased majorly-discounted tickets.

We started the day at the elephant outdoor area. I took pictures of the elephants and Cassi. Then, we moved over to the wart hogs (man are they UGLY), the hippo, etc. We moved from there to the Australian Adventure. We went into a huge bird cage. I took these AWESOME pictures of very brightly colored birds.

Cassi went under this water mister. They've got them ALL OVER the zoo. It was a hot day, but not too hot. I even enjoyed the misters. From there, we went through the gate to the adventure area. Upon walking up the path, Rob and I found ourselves looking at a pair of kangaroos who were "busy." We both again, laughed. Good thing Cassi didn't see what they were doing. The female tried to get away, but the male, "I'M NOT FINISHED YET!" is what we could see him saying. Upon walking again, another family passed by us. The mom looked at me, then behind me, where the kangaroos were, then back to me. I said to her, "Family just keep moving!" And we both laughed.

In this area, there is a HUGE play treehouse. Rob took Cassi up into the thing, where I took more pictures. In the end, we came back around to the beginning where the elephants lived. Coming back to the beginning, we were heading for a tram to take us up the hill (more like a small mountain) to see the primates and aquatics. When coming around, I found Romona Robinson, who is a female anchor for the NBC affiliate taping at the zoo. It was very interesting to just watch to see what they were doing. I didn't watch the news to see because, being that my sister works for ABC, I typically watch channel 5.

We went up the hill. First, it took forever for the tram to come, then, it took forever to leave because there were about a half dozen older folks in wheelchairs trying to get where we were going. Once we got to the top, we got out immediately. Boy, those people at the top couldn't even wait for us to get off the tram. Because the entrances and exits to the seating areas are on the same time, these people just couldn't wait.

We went into the primate house, where I got a BUNCH of good pictures. On another post, you find the picture of the "butt monkeys" we saw. From there, we walked across the hill and down. We went into the Butterfly house, where I tried so hard to take pictures of a blue-backed butterfly. Cassi was so impatient that I couldn't get the picture.

From there, we went over to the seals & sea lions. She wanted to feed them, but it appears that allowing the public feed them isn't allowed anymore. From there, we were going to take the other tram back to the main entrance. We didn't want to wait, so we walked. On the way back, we stopped at the rhino's where the trainer was working with a male and female. I got some AWESOME pictures. From there, we went to monkey island.

We were then back at the beginning, and it was 4pm. We didn't have a chance to use our rainforest tickets. We've got a year to use them. But, we did going into the gift shop. We purchased Cassi a humpback whale t-shirt. It's gorgeous.

On the way home, we ended up going south down Rt. 71, then west across Rt. 480 and the turnpike west to home. That was the quickest way for us. Cassi slept (even rough snoring) until we arrived at home.

In the end, we all walked at least 4 miles. For me, it was good because my goal is 1 mile a day.

I didn't want to add the photos because I took over 100 of them yesterday. I can't determine which are the best. Just email me if you want to see them and I'll share.

Love to all,
Cathy
8^ )