Zoo Tour

Today was a beautiful day - the weather was gorgeous!  We decided to make our way to the zoo, which was a surprise to Madison.  She made a few guesses, but never got it right until we got to the parking lot, where there was a parking spot saved for us nearby a big sign that said, "ZOO."  Yep, you guessed it right, Madison!

Today's highlights were many, one of which involved these below:

Giraffes!  Daddy snapped this photo of them being a little playful, but Madison got to do even more!  Mommy had some spare cash, and Madison was actually able to FEED a giraffe today!  Unfortunately, the employee there seemed to thrive on literally blocking EVERYONE'S attempt at taking a photo for some reason.  It was sort of weird watching parents sort of get all hopeful, and then look all disappointed at the fact that even with a camera, this guy would position his large backside into everyone's photo!  Count Daddy in the "disappointed" category, although the humor of that previous statement is starting to sink in.  Imagine all these photos of a zookeeper's butt...  Anyway, Madison did get to feed a giraffe.  She got a couple branches, and reached up to the giraffe who was wandering towards us, and in seconds the food was gone!  Daddy loves giraffes - in fact, he wrote an entire sermon about these amazing and unique creatures.

There were plenty of other highlights, of course.  Madison was feeding parakeets at one point, and the weather was so cool that for the most part, all of the animals were walking about.  Later on, the warthogs were moving around - but Madison got to see them up close, taking a siesta.  Here's a picture of Madison, Pumbaa, and Shanikwa:

We saw a big tiger close-up, yawning and showing all of those teeth.  Yes, we saw the gorillas too - although Madison was more interested in the statues of gorillas, rather than the LIVE gorillas that were currently being fed.  The elephants were colored red, having rolled in Georgia's famous red clay a lot - they do that to cool off.  The thing is the day was so cool and comfortable today.  That was pretty much the reason for the trip to the zoo (along with the fact that Mommy found a discount).  We'll save our trip to Legoland on a rainy or cool day, but today was such a wonderful day to walk around.  In fact, Daddy got a little too much sun, although we all made sure to put on sun tan lotion beforehand.

The favorite animals for Madison, of course, are the pandas.

There are three there, one of which is a young guy named Po.  He's obviously named after the "Kung Fu Panda" character, and was certainly more active, walking around.  The other two pandas were posing in luxuriant, sprawled out poses.  "Bring me more bamboo!"

It was a great day at the zoo - and despite the traffic (and zookeeper's bottom), we had ourselves a great time.  We got home early enough to do some piano and drawing at the table.  And one more thing too:  it is National Pretzel Day!

Time for some munching!