Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Wet & Wild in Seattle

Sunday morning we woke up to the pitter patter of typical northwest rain drops. Ugh. We knew the forecast wasn't that great but had hoped the weather man was very wrong. He wasn't. Since sitting in our hotel room all day was out of the question and shopping all day at the mall just would not be fair to the boys we decided to just go out and have fun anyhow. I would like to know why I was stupid enough to flat iron my hair that morning though. Hmmmm...I suppose I am very vain. After the free breakfast included with our room at the hotel we jumped in the car and headed downtown to the Woodland Park Zoo. I'm not a huge fan of zoos but from all accounts this zoo was supposed to be excellent. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed myself. The exhibits were so well done, the variety of animals was incredible, the grounds were beautiful and not crowded due to the weather. Each animal had such a realistic habitat that you didn't really feel bad they weren't in the wild.

The boys each got a stick with bird seeds stuck on to feed the birds in a big open rooms with hundred of them flying around. All you had to do was hold out your stick and they would land on it and eat the seeds. That was the theory. We ended up having to put those seedy sticks right under their noses for them to partake. I guess they were already full! I was just glad I didn't get pooped on. I mean my hair was already frizzy from the rain...it didn't need sticky bird muck in it too!


My least favorite exhibit was the spiders. There was a tarantula the size of a volleyball. It really made me want to puke to look at it. Nate wouldn't even look at all. My most favorite exhibit was the gorilla family. They were seriously entertaining and boy did we laugh at their antics. I could have watched for hours. We also saw bears, otters, raptors, all sorts of monkeys, nocturnal animals, reptiles, tigers, birds, giraffes, hippos, domestic farm animals wild dogs, crocodiles, elephants, jaguars, pandas, and more. It was great.

This orangutan was quite funny walking around with a burlap sack over himself. I guess he doesn't like rain either.


Oh yes...the bears. I love bears....HAH! No, actually they are really huge and scary to me. I don't mind them at the zoo but never want to see one outside of a zoo!




Komodo Dragon....a big ole nasty lizard.




This eagle was huge and gorgeous! They did a little flying demo with the raptors...a falcon, owl, and vulture. Really quite amazing birds!



We were on our feet for six straight hours....in the rain! Fortunately it wasn't very cold so we were only damp...not shivering too. Anyhow, we highly recommend this attraction!



Nate and Chad demonstrate the right and wrong way to milk ole Bessie.


7 comments:

Kori's House said...

Rain and all... it still looks like fun to me!

We actually have plans to check out this zoo this summer, hope it works out, looks very nice!

Colleen said...

You know, I think I had that EXACT umbrella at one point in my life. I swirled it alot to see the pretty colours. :)

Keri's Collage... said...

I love animals at the zoo! I also love eagles!

Anonymous said...

Hey, we did the same trip when the kids were small. We went to that zoo, the space needle, even the hotel room looks like ours! Having a total deja vu here...great time of year to go..no big crowds. Today Seattle...tomorrow...Disney Land.

Anonymous said...

I do believe that I've been to that zoo as a child. I just love zoos!

villagegirl said...

I was getting all excited to go there some time until I read the tarantula bit. Thanks. Thanks alot.
I'll just be sure to avoid that exhibit all together. :)
Glad you had fun even in the rain.

Theresa said...

We have been wanting to check this zoo out! It looks great! Glad you had fun!