A Day at the Zoo

Hello, dear blog readers! So on Memorial Day, we went to the zoo in Wilmington. I was a little suspicious of what might lie behind the green walls with cheesy paintings and a plaster Aligator Mouth surrounding the admission door, but we were pleasantly surprised! There was a vast variety of animals.

 This is how the morning started. Fortunately, after seeing a few critters, the mood improved.

 Others weren't affected by the "morning mood."

 Hot. Beastly hot. Even this little guy was sitting up like a "person" and dangling his feet over the edge near the water. Nothing like sitting in the shade on a hot day!

 Toodler-speak almost every time he saw an animal: "Bird!"

 "Doggy!"

 "....." (Silence)

 "Doggy!" (They were waiting for the people behind us to toss them some treats)

 "Duck!"

 "Doggy!" (White Tiger)

 The pony was a sweetie. Even though we had nothing to feed the animal at our own risk, he was not at all opposed to letting me scratch his head and pet him a bit.

 These little beggars resided next door to the pony. They had absolutely no shame in squawking vehemently at us and following us down the fenceline while demanding corn (which we failed to purchase at the gift store). I'm sure there were a few bird obscenities shouted in our general direction while the pony calmly looked on, wondering in horsey thoughts as to how to best get them to shut up. And THEN these ill-mannered birds spied the folks behind us, whose granddaughters each had a bag of corn. This escalated the begging and bird obscenities to a whole new octave, which could be heard through half of the zoo. They know a good thing when they see one.

Oh, look! The ROUS (Rodent Of Unusual Size) retired from the movie The Princess Bride! Here he is...(Or a grandchild, perhaps?) 

 "Doggy!" These goats were shouting obscenities back at the ducks, presumably because at this point in  visitors' journeys, there wasn't much corn left in the bags to give the goat onlookers.

My

 "Ducks!"

My personal favorite Toodler label: "Daddy!!!!" (This was in reference to the new otter pool, which only had one otter in it. He took great pleasure in showing off his playful otter skills for us.) 

 "Duck!" (No, folks, you aren't imagining it. It's the same peacock from earlier that had gone down a footpath shortcut and intersected us. I think he was hoping the ducks and goats hadn't eaten all the treats.)

Another funny sight: the TURTLES were actually begging! A few even swam up onto the back of this aligator in hopes of getting some free chow.

And that, dear blog readers, concludes our trip to the zoo! Happy Thursday to you all!