zoo for nothing...

Since J didn't have school on Monday, I decided to take him and my parents to the zoo. It is my parents first time to visit the Oregon zoo so I thought that would a neat thing to do. Turns out Monday was a free day at the zoo and boy was it busy. It took us a while to get parked but it wasn't that bad. It was also pretty cold at the zoo but I did warn my parents about it so they kind of bundled up. The first ones we've seen were the bears (sleeping/hybernating?), the leopards (sleeping),the eagle from afar since the area was closed, lots of sheep at the barn, and the very few moving animals - the wolves, elks and the bobcat. I liked the wolves - they were in tracking mode when we went there. Their ears were all standing up and they really looked like they were out hunting. So, we roamed around a bit then met up with my friend Helen and her little girl Lola. After that, we all decided to check out the new baby Elephant and that was pretty neat. Then, we headed out to the animals from Africa - boy was that a mistake! What were we thinking - there were no animals that could be seen at all at their exhibit. No zebras, giraffes, hippos and rhinos to our dismay. Then, we wanted to see our "relatives" the primates - again it was closed because it was under construction! Same with the animals from Asia, there were hardly any of them to see. Anyway, at least we did get to see the Polar bears in action and the sea lions. The sea lions were even somewhat smiling, they had a wide grin on their face and you can see their teeth and they too were really swimming close to the glass screen. The kids enjoyed that of course. In the end we realized that maybe, the reason why the zoo was free is because there was hardly any animal out to see. Boy, so much about having a zoo membership when you can't put it to use since there is not much to see. Anyway, important thing is J was entertained enough and my parents did get to see some animals...

Now about my mom. I was a bit surprised as to how she showed little interest to the animals. She's never been to a zoo her entire life and so I thought she would be at least entertained. Plus, she does like animals - heck she's got about 5 dogs and 3 cats. She even attempted to buy a squirrel in the Philippines. She'll keep all of the puppy's whenever one of her dogs gives birth, if we let her. So, I was pretty amazed (hate that word because it is so overused) but that is how I felt anyway. So, when we got home I asked her why she showed little interest at the zoo or the animals and turns out - she just didn't like how it smelled at the zoo... sheesh!