Illinois Visit: Sunday and Monday!

Clara and my dad reviewing what she will see at the zoo.  They did this again after we got home.

Sunday was Easter, and at the Saint Louis Zoo, they were giving animals different things for enrichment that were Easter themed.  So, we headed off to the zoo to see that.  Our first stop was the children's zoo which is FREE the first hour that the zoo is open.  We made it with ten minutes to spare!!  I'm pretty sure it was my first time ever of going to the children's zoo.   Clara LOVED it... and so did I!

We saw fish, birds, armadillo, guinea pigs, meerkats, a tree kangaroo, and a few other animals that I can't remember the names of in the first building.  It was really neat that they also had a play veterinary area, tree house for kids to climb on, a tunnel for kids to crawl through, and a window where you could watch the keepers prepare food for the animals.  Then, we went back outside where we saw alpacas (which everyone was calling llamas... read the signs people).  Clara was mesmerized by the sound of the sheep baaing, my version just is not as good!!  

 

 

She is looking at (non-naked) mole rats.

 

I went in the tunnel to help Clara, and my mom got a picture of me coming out.

Looking at and listening to the sheep.

Next came the pot-bellied pigs, miniature donkeys, and what I believe were miniature kudu.  Around that time, we saw the free roaming chickens.  Clara thought that they were one of the neatest things there, although they didn't get too close.  I could've sworn at one point that I heard some chicks peeping, but we never saw any.  They have slides and a jungle gym in the center of the children's zoo.  There is an open mouthed metal hippo there that I had to get a picture of Clara inside.  I'm pretty sure that my mom has one of me inside of it, too.  (I think the hippo used to be in a different place in the zoo.)

 

 Finally, we petted some goats.  Clara did really good not pulling their hair like she does with Sookie.  She was scared of the bigger goats, but she loved petting the smaller ones.  It was a great start to our totally free day!!

 Once we were done at the children's zoo, we headed to the monkey house to see the black handed spider monkeys play with their Easter enrichment items.  They had paper mache "eggs" with grapes inside of them.  It took them a while to find them, but it was pretty cool to watch.  Unfortunately, it was CROWDED!!  So, after going through that, we decided to look at the enrichment schedule and go in the opposite direction!

Trying to see the monkeys with tall people in front of us.

Next, (well after Clara got some milk and became happy again), we went to the bird building.  There was a male peacock right outside of it, and we got pretty close to it as we walked into the building.  While we were inside, my dad got a song stuck in my head: "Bird, bird, bird, bird is the word."  Seriously, I sang it off and on for the rest of the day!  On the other side of the bird house, there was a female peacock on the ground.  We were pretty sure that she was dusting (since she was moving around a bit) instead of sitting on a nest.

 

 
Instead of going straight to the bird cage after the bird building, we went to look at the zebras, gazelles, camels, giraffes, babirusa, etc.  And then, we looked at the big cats.  After looking at the big cats, we ate lunch that we had packed.  We had a female peacock come up to us as we were eating, and Clara really liked looking at her.  After eating, we went through the bird cage, and then we looked at the apes.

The last things to look at were the bears, penguins, and puffins.  My parents and I really thought that there used to be more bears at the zoo than there are now.  Anyone know?  The penguins and puffins were pretty cool... the building quite literally was cool (that was the only problem with it being a nice day instead of really hot).  There was a baby King Penguin that was all downy feathers, but looked as big and tall as its parents!

 We got back to the north entrance of the zoo, and when we stopped to sit down for just a second (we were going to take a bathroom break, but then realized the line was VERY long), Clara fell asleep.  She slept all of the way home, and a few hours more at home in the car before waking up.  If that doesn't say, "I had a good trip," I don't know what does!!

      
We played with Clara the rest of the day.  My mom made salmon for dinner (which Clara gobbled up).  And, later that night, I videotaped Clara a bit.

On Monday, Clara and I headed back to Fort Riley.  The trip wasn't quite as smooth as the way to Illinois.  I had to stop in Kingdom City for gas and to make lunch for myself (trying to not wake up Clara so I could get farther).  But, she woke up just outside of Boonville, so I had to stop at a rest area to change and feed her.  That took a little longer than I expected.  I was hoping to make it back to Manhattan before six o'clock to pick up Sookie so I didn't have to come back to town the next day.  I made it with just ten minutes to spare!!

We had such a good visit at home!!  Thank you to my mom and dad for a great time!  And, congratulations to my dad for getting a jake on the first day of spring turkey season