Trip to Ohio - Cincinnati Zoo

We've been talking about going to the Zoo nearly all summer. Actually, I think Claire first brought it up sometime around Easter. The North Carolina Zoo is a natural habitat zoo where visitors are often lucky to catch site of the animals because they are contained in vast stretches of land or in lavish jungle like enclosures. Plus, you have to walk a TON to get to each exhibit. So, we weren't too excited about going there in the heat of the summer. Thus, when Seth suggested that we take the kids to the Cincinnati Zoo, it seemed like a great idea. It is much smaller and fairly accessible for kids too.

I took a whole hoard of pictures that day, so you'll have to just scroll through them all. Seth and his girlfriend, Alicia, brought Kayli, and Jesse brought Zeke, so all of the cousins (minus Tristyn who started her first day of 7th grade - poor, hormonal thing!) were there. Dad and SueAnne came as well.

Ben's favorite part was seeing the rhino. He kept telling it to "get out of the mud right NOW!"

This huge hairy beast of an ape provided nearly half an hour's worth of entertainment for my family. He was new to the exhibit that day and was not happy about his situation. Poor guy had to deal with three very curious female apes who kept crossing into his territory. Time and again he would pound against the outside wall and race across the exhibit while screaming at them. It was pretty terrifying just to watch. My brothers thought it was the coolest thing ever, of course.

It's been about 15 years since I had been to the Cincy zoo, and much has changed. One new addition is the Lorikeet cage. You can enter the cage and purchase sweetened milk. The lorikeets and various other colorful birds will fly down, land on you and drink the milk. Claire put one foot in the cage and about had a heart attack. Ben lasted a few minutes longer, but everyone else did ok - apart from getting bird doo-doo on them, that is. SueAnne, Zeke, Alicia and Jesse all got doo-doo baptized.



Claire's favorite animal is the giraffe. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps it is because they don't make any scary noise and are slow moving? That probably has something to do with it. Anyway, the new giraffe habitat was pretty cool. Had we visited it a half hour later, we could have actually fed the giraffes by hand.



My mom says it has been this way for a long time, but the zoo allows the peacocks to roam around the zoo on their own. You run into them all over the place, and they usually congregate around the snack bars and restaurants hoping to find some food.

Kayli and her daddy (Seth) at the Polar Bear exhibit.
Claire is apparently afraid that Papa Bill is going to throw her in with the Polar Bear. You can tell by the picture that he is telling her to "shush."

This picture of Ben and Shawn was taken at the beginning of the day. Poor Ben was exhausted by the end of the visit, and actually spiked a fever for the next few days. We never figured out what caused it, but he was NOT a happy camper.