Atlanta Zoo

We went to the zoo today. The girls had a wonderful time. There was hardly anybody there, so we took our time through all the exhibits without feeling pressured to get out of the way. It was awesome. They played with the panda (through the glass) as he was eating his bamboo. It was pretty cool to watch him sit and eat.

We visited the petting zoo and learned that goats are bovine, akin to cows, and have FOUR stomachs. We also learned that goats chew cud. (I never knew this.)

We saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, lions, and a whole host of the usual zoo animals.

We hung around the flamingos for a while and watched them sparring with each other.

We watched the otters playing and, interestingly, waiting to be fed. We just happened upon the otter exhibit close to feeding time. Somebody walked by with a set of keys and those critters went nuts. Unfortunately for them, he was not on his way to feed them. Then, a golf cart approached and stopped. I have never seen so many otters piled up on one single rock in my entire life. They sat there staring at this guy expectantly, only to be disappointed by the knowledge that he was simply doing his rounds to empty the trash cans. As we waited and watched, the little otters whimpered and moaned because they were so hungry. (sounded a lot like my two girls throughout the day...) When we finally left, they did a great bit of whimpering. I think they were enjoying our company. I peeked around the wooden fence to see just what all the whimpering was about and all seven of them were lined up by the water's edge staring at where we had disappeared. It was incredibly cute.

We had a really good day. I had intended to take a sketch pad and art set, but decided that it was a bit too cold to try to do much in the way of drawing. Besides, Kira was so excited that she bounced from spot to spot. I think getting her to sit still long enough to draw a picture would have been difficult.