I have this friend who grew up here and I am always interested in the fun things she does with her kids.  Her oldest is KB’s age and he has a sister and baby brother too.  They are on the go a lot and this Fall I got smart and asked her what things she has on her “to do” for Fall fun.

There were the typical things (pumpkin patches, etc.) and things I didn’t know existed (Oktoberfest in nearby little town) and then there was something so obvious I had never considered it. . . the zoo.  Ari mentioned how nice it was to walk around the zoo in the Fall weather and I immediately wrote it on our own list.

All three kids had last Friday off school and so we went to the zoo.  We have a fantastic zoo. If you have never lived in a place with a fantastic zoo you might find this hard to digest, but our zoo is beautiful, and huge, and has a great variety of animals and things to do.  I know I have written about it before so you probably approach this post like I did that trip to the zoo. . . expecting it to be the same old thing.  Well, I feel like it was an entirely new zoo.

The weather was actually a bit nippy and so everyone had on jackets when we left home! I planned well and we got there when the zoo opened so we had an entire hour to ride the carousel for free and get into the children’s zoo for free too.  The kids rode the carousel over and over and I sat and took photos and laughed and put them up on animals and helped them down.  ALL WITHOUT BREAKING A SWEAT!!! I had to remind myself that, yes, we WERE AT THE ZOO!!!

The cold in the air had all the animals up and moving like never before.  Bears were walking, tigers were pacing, gorillas were swinging, and the orangutan was feeling feisty  He walked up to the glass and sat down on a sheet to stare at us.  After he tired of the little faces peering at his gigantic head, he picked up a bed sheet that was lying on the ground and threw it over his head to hide himself.  He peeked out a couple of times and got giggles a-plenty from his little fan club.

The other highlight was the new “Sea Lion Sound” – a tunnel to walk through the water and have close encounters with the swimming sea lions.  OH MY.

It’s supposed to be 70 degrees here this weekend, that is rare for November.  I am thinking it might just necessitate another trip to the zoo.