The day started off colder than it has been thanks to the cold front that went through last night.  In addition bringing a nice cool breeze, it bought the “marine layer” otherwise known by normal people as clouds.  I had thought about taking the girls to the coast today (read beach if you not from the Pacific NW), but the weather man said it was foggy, rainy, and cool.  Not a bad report if it were October or November, and Garbanzo and I were getting away for a weekend at the coast where the kind of hotel room we got would matter more than the weather.  But, with the kids, that might make for a long day.

In hindsight, maybe I should have taken them there instead of the zoo.

I should preface everything by saying that neither kid slept well last night.  DJ was convinced there was some animal in her closet.  We likely do have a mouse upstairs thanks to the recently discovered window issue on the second floor and the unfortunate location of their room in relation to the mouse haven.  But, she was up about 4 time between 1-2am.  Of course, she wanted to discuss with us at length her issues, concerns, our plan of attack for combating this issue, etc.  We actually think who she was hearing was Derek who was still up and about.  No matter, we finally threw her on the couch and told her to sleep.  Indigo got up around 4am, so we had a long night as well.

Going into this outing to the zoo, I had the card stacked against me.  Kids were tired and goofy.  I was properly caffeinated, but not in the mood for any bullshit today.  So going to the zoo was probably going to result in a long day.  But, I went ahead and did it.  We are zoo members, so if we had to leave early, it’s not like we were out $40 or something.

Indigo lost three pennies just waiting for the train.  They had begged to take the zoo train into the zoo, and I didn’t think that would be a problem.  MISTAKE.  A 20 minute wait with my kids acting like monkeys and other kids acting like brats gave me a good indication of how the day would go. 

We get into the zoo, and the kids start literally climbing over everything.  They also were not even watching where they were going.  I don’t know how many times we would be walking down a path, and I would have to grab them to prevent them from walking into someone.  At one point, I grabbed both of them, sat them down, and asked if they had any idea why I was mad.  Then, they continued to do it.  I started heading us back to the train so we could go home.  I was done.

Before we got there, I did take them thru the lorikeet exhibit which is a bit like Hitchcock’s The Birds brought to life.  You walk thru the exhibit as they fly around you landing on you.  Last time I was in there, I ended up with four birds on me.  It was a bit freaky really.  We went into the exhibit.  The birds were rather calm today. 

We also walked through a pretty neat exhibit about chimpanzees.  Very educational.  Well put together – and a lot of fun.  The girls learned a lot about chimps.

We came home soon after that.  Thankfully!  I did refrain from having my first beer then….but the temptation was definitely there.

This is Sam, the 1-year-old baby elephant born at the zoo.  His birthday is actually Sunday.  He was playing with a bamboo stick when we saw him. 

This is the elephant on loan from the Seattle Zoo.  Oregon Zoo has a greatly successful breeding program, but their male elephant isn’t as virile as he used to be.  Thus the need for a loaner stud.

The lorikeet drama – the loving pair:

The interloper. Look at the center one glaring at the one on the left.  Yeah, he’s not going to let him cut in on his chick.

This is the cute little boy walking around with his squirrel tail.