A visit to the zoo

Wednesday Skyler and Don were off to Oshkosh, Wis. for the annual EAA fly-in and convention, so I wanted to take Lindsay on a trip too.

Good weather was predicted so I decided we'd journey to the St. Louis Zoo. I'd hoped the shutdown of Highway 40 -- my usual way to get to the zoo -- wouldn't affect us too much. Unfortunately, it did. We left the house at about 8:10 a.m. I thought that would get us to the zoo by 9 a.m. We ran into slow traffic on Highway 170, then again at stoplights on Forest Park Parkway. We finally arrived at the north parking lot about an hour after we left. It normally takes us about 30-40 minutes to get to the zoo. Can't wait 'til the construction is finished.

We had a great time at the zoo. We went to the children's zoo first. We could have skipped it this year except that we love seeing the otters. They swim right toward the glass, then bounce off it and swim in the other direction. Lindsay was a little scared by that.

We went to River's Edge next, where the elephants and hippos live. Baby elephant Malia and her mama were out. We also saw Raja, the male born at the zoo some 18 or so years ago. He's gotten so big!

The hippos were fun to see. The cheetahs were a no-show again. I've only seen them out once in all the times I've gone.
Out of River's Edge, we headed to see the alligators, which are in outside enclosures. I thought we were going to see a Wild Kingdom moment at the Chinese alligator exhibit. A large turtle was next to the water then jumped or fell in. The alligator rushed to it and attacked. There was a scuffle underwater then the turtle emerged and skeedadled out of the water. I know killing things and eating them is what alligators do, but I was glad I didn't see it kill the turtle right in front of us.

We were getting hungry so we stopped to eat the sandwiches I'd brought. Then I bought ice cream for her.

We went to the penguin and puffin exhibit. Cool as always. After that Lindsay saw the carousel and had to ride twice (would have ridden more if I'd let her). We went through the aviary to the hoofed-animal area where we saw the giraffes. The giraffes are always good to see. There's almost always at least one giraffe standing at the front of the exhibit, so close you can practically touch them. This year the big male was right there. We sat on a park bench to rest and watched him.

Next we went to the zebras, which Lindsay said were her favorite. We were getting tired so we headed back to the entrance, but not before a stop at the gift shop. I bought a cute penguin coloring book for Lindsay. On the ride home, she looked through the book and it seemed to help her remember our good times there.