Zoo, zoo, zoo!!

For our first family zoo experience, we decided to go to Elmvale Jungle Zoo.  We were up early and on the road by 8.  It took about 2 hours to drive there, but we were pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous scenery we were able to enjoy. The weather was fantastic, sunshine and blue skies. The kids were kept happy in the back with a movie and P&K had their DS's.  W napped briefly, but overall was quite happy!  I attribute this partly to being able to see the video and partly to being forward facing just like P&K.  We took the truck, and the kids enjoyed being side-by-side.  K was in the middle and got to look out the front window.  She loved watching the big hills approaching. 

When we arrived we were a bit disappointed to see a bus had arrived before us carrying loads of summer camp kids!  However, they ended up not being a problem at all.

Elmvale zoo is an excellent zoo.  The animals aren't too far apart - just far enough.  The trails are winding and it is very shaded with the natural trees.  There are lots of small ponds and creeks, and despite the large amount of vehicles/busses in the parking lot it did not feel very busy. 

I took a lot of pictures!  It was so nice to have the little quick-shot camera.  

Type of lemur.  Loved their long, fluffy black tails.

These are capybara's - large rodents!  They looked very much like large ground hogs.

These ducks were hillarious.  They were bobbing their heads to unseen music.

My favourite, the Zebras!!!

This funny owl was posing for us.

Happy kids!!

Silly ducks sleeping on one leg!!

Shaun with the Bald Eagle.  He was slightly insulted that I asked him to pose with the bald eagle.... thought I was being funny.

These are Patagonian Cavy.  The look like giant rabbits and KJ really liked them.

This Crested Porcupine was HUGE!! 

Kids with the Ostriches

Kathryn feeding a deer.  Check out those eyelashes!!! (click on the picture to enlarge it)

Giraffes!!  They were a big hit (har-de-har).

Say cheese!

Giraffes in the background

Pony Ride! Kathryn's horse name was Lightening!

Shaun feeding a ring-tailed Lemur!  This is a baby, and they are allowed to roam outside the enclosure.  I got a great video of this as well, and then had a chance to hold the banana!

 After exploring the park on our own, and having our pic-nic lunch, we watched a show.  The zookeeper had lots of interesting information about the animals, and another animal handler brought them out to show us. Some the kids were even able to touch, like this tortise who is 20 years old:

 At this point, W was done with sitting still and was not interested in seeing the animals up close so I took him out of the stroller to follow him around a bit.  I kept having to snatch him up before he walked into people/was walked into and at one point I twinged my back.  It was so bad I couldn't stand upright and I could barely walk.... but I had no choice and pressed thru the pain to pick up W before he wandered too far away. I got back to Shaun and handed W over.  I was in a lot of pain and picked up pain meds in Collingwood on the way home (and took the max dose... they worked well.)  Still in pain today but taking less meds and hoping to be done with being in pain by tomorrow.  Also hoping to sleep well tonight. 

Back to our trip!

McCaw

Awesome snake! 

Touching the snake!!!!!!  Shaun just about died taking this picture... probably about the same time I was wrything in pain....

a Kinkajou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinkajou)

Baby Panther

Baby Lion

8-week-old baby Tiger.  Got a great video of him "talking".

 Side note:  We did look at the adult cats in the park, but no pictures.  The Lions were literally lying around (har-de-har).  The Cheetah's were resting in the shade.  But the full-grown Jaguar, looking very much like this picture was pacing back and forth at the front of his cage eyeing us up for dinner.  It was very unnerving and we didn't stay near him long!

After the show we decided to walk around a bit... the kids wanted to see the turkey's again and I thought walking might help to work out my back.  Here's a video of K making the turkey's gobble.... blogger has refused (twice) to let this video upload!  Oh well.  Visit me and I'll show ya.

We carried on, happy to see the Cassowary was now outside.  He didn't look to pleased about it though as he is snuggled up to his enclosure door.

Cassowary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary).  A type of flightless bird, we loved how much he looks like a dinosaur!

 Now we're nearing the end of our trip.  My back is aching and I'm pushing the stroller to help keep myself upright.  P&K are starting to get weary and W is almost asleep.  And I see this sign.  And outloud I say "Oh look, Silicon Donkey's".  And Shaun laughs, and corrects me... that they are Sicilian (i.e. Itallian).  I laugh.  I say "its amazing what they can do with computer chips these days".  Then we stop so K can dump out her shoe because a stone has gotten in.  And Shaun says "Give me the camera so I can get a picture of the fake Asses".  Histeria.  For us anyway, its all verymuch over the kids' heads.

Silicon Donky's... or "fake asses".  Yep.  You had to be there for it to be funny.

 So we headed back to the front and had a pee break before heading out (the washrooms were fantastic and clean).While K and I were waiting, we saw that the Kangaroo's are now being active, and we actually got to see some jump which K thought was awesome.  Mostly they just rested in the shade though.  It was rather hot and humid.

Right beside the Kangaroos was the flamingos.  Shaun wondered for most of the day (we had seen them on the way in as well) what a flamingo would taste like!  Probably like chicken.

 We left the zoo, happy to have spent the day and pleased with what we were able to see.  We agreed it should be an annual trip. 

W was just super exhausted though, and passed out in the stroller on the way to the truck:

I would definelty recommend the Elmvale Zoo.  Its a hike from here, but worth it and the scenery en-route is amazing. It was also very resonable (W was free, and we had printed $2 coupons for the adults... cost us less than $50 total to get in). Next time we might take our swim suits as their is a really nice beach (we stopped there on the way to use the port-a-potties) near Collingwood we'd like to enjoy.  It was PACKED with cars and people on the way back.