Zoorassic Park

My kids go to a charter school that prefers to make its own rules.  So it doesn't begin or end its school year on the same days as the rest of our school district.  We finished school a day earlier than everyone else, so I thought that the following day, when everyone else would still be at school, would be the perfect day to take my kids to the zoo.  We would beat the mid-summer heat and avoid the school's-out crowds, right?  Wrong.  Although the weather was lovely, the zoo was pretty crowded with field trips.  Who knew?  But we had a great time anyway.

The zoo was in the midst of a special event called Zoorassic Park.  They had several full-sized (fake, in case you were wondering) dinosaurs scattered throughout the zoo, some of which made noises; some of which moved around in exciting, if not realistic, robotic fashion; and some of which sprayed water.  The kids loved spotting these during the day.

The new African Safari enclosure was really great.
See the giraffe?

Zebras and an ostrich.

Luke loved seeing all the animals!

I spy some sleeping lionesses...

and a sleeping monkey of some kind...

and some awake but definitely resting gorillas.

I don't remember now what animals were depicted on this wall.
I think orangutans.  But I'm not positive.
Whatever they are, Cat is bigger than an adult. 

When we arrived at the bird show, Jack and Eliza hopped
in a picture with a Peregrine Falcon. Cool!

The bird show was by far the highlight of the day.
It was so fun to see birds from around the world who had been
trained to fly from one side of the theater to the other.
The tropical birds talked and did tricks and were really funny.

See the eagle flying to the trainer?

Here's a parrot flying under the shade.

Eliza hopped in a picture with an injured Bald Eagle when the show
was over.  This one's name was Liberty.

When we were walking by the theater later on we could see the doves flying
around under the shade.  The birds get pretty close to the audience and it's
really cool.  We will definitely go to the bird show again next time we're at the zoo.

In the "Rocky Shores" area, Cat played with Luke in the simulated
Pacific tide pool.  She was really sweet with him.

And all of the kids enjoyed going down the slide
inside this lighthouse.  See Eliza waiting her turn at the top?

All of The Bigs fit in the eagle's nest.
I think Jack was pretending to be an eagle..?

The last dinosaur we saw was the T-Rex.  RUN!