We (Cait, Brayden & I) recently had a chance to visit the Brookfield Zoo for the first time and let me tell you it was all that I had hoped it would be.
The families of Westminster OPC had an outing scheduled for June 12th and Caitlyn and I waited in eager anticipation!! They had a similar excursion to the zoo last year, however I was in no shape to be out running around with a 3 week old, so our visit had to wait.
Brayden is now almost 1 (I still don't really believe it, I can still remember holding him for the first time, he was so small. He was able to ride along in a nice stroller and enjoyed looking at any of the moving animals (especially in the Monkey House). Caitlyn wanted to see many exhibits, one was the wolves, which we did get a chance to visit.
During the morning we wandered around many of the exhibits with the families from our church.
We started with the Camels and other African animals, although each time we walked past the Elephant exhibit (3 to be exact), no elephants were outside. So, from the camels, we moved on to Giraffes, other hoofed animals, including some bison, and the Aardvark house. Here is a photo of our group and the giraffe.
We next moved on to a small playground, where the kids could run and play, even Brayden got in some play time away from the stroller. Then it was off to enjoy a lunch near the Baboon exhibit. After we had pur lunch, we watched as Amy Martens fed the Baboons some leafy goodness!!! What fun.
After the Baboons, we went to see the rest of the monkeys who were hanging about in the Monkey House. This was pretty packed with people and our group was separated, so Brayden and I enjoyed this house alone. Somewhere he lost his pacifier and we are hoping a monkey hasn't gotten their hands on it ;(
We saw 2 mothers with their young, both a tamarin monkey and a gorilla!!
After the other visitors decided to call it a day, Caitlyn, Brayden, and I continued to explore the Brookfield Zoo!! We saw fighting bears (apparently it was a private swimming hole!!), lackadaisical lions, and a timid tiger. The polar bear and the kangaroos didn't seem to care that we were looking in on them, while the hippo was just being lazy!! We managed to stop in at the swamp, but the alligator wasn't very welcoming :) The Living Coast exhibit was all washed up, except for the penguins of course. The Dolphins and Sea Otters were blissfully unaware of an audience in the seven seas. We also saw a Brontasaurus near the central fountain (I think anyway, I must confess I was frightened of getting too close, even if it is a herbivore).
In short, one day is simply not enough time to take in the entire zoo and all of the exhibits, but we did our best and here are the final pictures of our zoo trip enjoy.. We did :D
If you look closely, the bears are roaring at each other, which was pretty impressive from our vantage point!!
Anna Hvizdos and Josiah Bessette (AKA Mr. Cool)
