One Last Zoo-rrah!

Since all five of my dear ones started school on the same day this year, we were all feeling the end of summer blues.  I thought one more trip to the zoo might be a fun way to spend a Monday.  

The weather was beautiful, and since everyone got to wake up naturally, no one felt sleepy or angry!  And, because of when we went, we got a really good parking spot, in the shade, since the early birds were done for the day!

A Michigan shaped leaf!

I don't have much to say about many of these pictures, just enjoyed being there with all of my babies!

Alice was our official Chipmunk counter at the zoo, and we saw 15 during our visit!  We also heard some, but Alice determined that those didn't count.

I had no idea that the Lion's Club sponsored this fountain!

Kookaburra looking regal as always!

They still had lettuce for sale at the Giraffe overlook, so everyone got to feed these magnificent creatures!  It was the first thing that everyone told Billy about when he got home, suffice to say, I think it was everyone's favorite activity.

"Do you have food?"

I was trying to see if the giraffe posters were a likeness for this giraffe, and I decided that they were not.

They must have recently fed the animals near the giraffe stand, because we saw many more of the animals from the book than we did the last two times!

"What did you find William?"

The app on my phone says it's a Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar!

Al has a bandage on his leg because of a recurring skin infection, but he came over to say hi anyhow!

The red river hog apparently thought it was too hot out.  But his ears were fabulous!

Emily and William (play) fighting over who gets to see the Red River Hog.  It's a shame that they couldn't look at the same time.  Strange children.

It looked like they were in the process of reopening this mine shaft path, but it was inaccessible this trip.

I sure am glad this was a staged snake and not a real one, because I didn't even see it when I walked into the restroom!

They were only running one tram, so we were the first in line for the next round, and a had a long wait! The twins found that they really enjoyed the frayed rope end.

I intentionally brought quarters to that everyone could feed the goats!  The bigger goats were definitely bullies though!

We didn't realize that you weren't supposed to feed the goats inside the enclosure, for good reason, those big goats were aggressive!  So, Emily is in there doing illegal things!

Can anyone look at a ring-tailed lemur and not start singing "I like to move it move it" in their head, or out loud? 

Alice's one request was to see the wolves, since she didn't come with us the second time to remedy that oversight.  It looked like they had posed for our visit!  So majestic.

The way that the python was posed, it reminded me of the animated movie Robin Hood, when Sir Hiss pouted by laying his head on his 'arms' made from his body.

As is tradition, we stopped at our favorite Chinese place, in Battle Creek, to pick up dinner.  When we sat down to dinner, I found that my piece of sweet and sour chicken was chicken shaped!

We made it home in time to eat and to hustle over to the twins' open house.  I'm thankful for one last summer adventure.  Now we are ready for school!

later days

edit 8-23-25: backdated for continuity.

Back to Binder Park Zoo

All five of my dear ones were out the Friday before Memorial Day, and despite the chill, we decided to return to Binder Park Zoo to get the most from our membership!

It was cloudy out, and Alice decided that she didn't want to come, but the rest of us set out on an adventure. Our first priority was to see the wolf, which we missed out on, on our previous visit.

On the way there we found a window to a secret world!

And had enough time to snap a picture with the giant bear!

And admired God's handiwork on some leaves.

And laughed at the bears kicking each other in their treehouse as they 'slept.'

Finally we found the wolves!

But we couldn't see them from the viewing area, so we tried walking along the side of the enclosure, where we spotted contraptions...

and looked at some flowers preparing to bloom.

We did finally get to see them from afar!  They were sunning on a rock pile that closely matched their fur!  Apparently, the child wolf kept jumping the fence, so they had to add a piece to make it taller!

After that we meandered through the other exhibits.  Despite the day being less pleasant for us, temperature wise, the animals seemed more invigorated and active. 

Mossy shingles on the covered bridge.

This bird was particularly agitated, each and every time we walked by!

We played in the circle for a long while.

And took some pictures I hope to one day recreate when the sizes are swapped!

Last time I felt like we rushed in the chalk and music area, so we spent as much time as everyone wanted this go round.

I had five punches left on our card from last time, and since there were only five of us on this trip, I thought it was a good opportunity to get it out of my wallet!

After the train ride, we decided to break for lunch, so we slowly headed that way.

The bathroom tiles were super cool.  Alone they looked like this.

But they could add any single one of them to the tree for a whole new look!

Field trips were leaving while we ate lunch, so we were able to move my car to a much closer parking spot.

On our way back in we spotted the compass, which I hadn't noticed on our previous three entrances!!

More time at the chalk and music zone.

Grace wanted to 'ride' on the butterfly, and finally found a good one that I could stand behind to take the picture.

And my children know when they hear a good idea, so William and Juliet wanted to have the same!

Emily liked the  purple, but declined the riding pose.

Our next stop was at the zoorasic zone. 

So, this little chipmunk was running along the edge of the walking path, and keeping pace with me and Emily.  We paused and he ran over to this hole, not far from me at all.  I was talking to him and telling him that I could still see him, and that his hiding place was not very good, when Grace ran up to us and he squeaked and ran away, and Grace had not seen him and she squeaked and was also startled.  Emily and I had a good chuckle.  Maybe not the worst hiding place.

Nothing special?

Oh, but it is!  How cool are these young leaves?!

From a high vantage point, you can see how swampy this area looks!

Juliet spent a long time reburying the fossil, so that the next person could 'discover' it.

We still haven't confirmed, but five feet tall and 11 pounds does seem inaccurate, even for 'bird' bones.

We didn't see any on our visit.

From the ground, it looks way more like a forest than a swamp!

We stayed so long, that the zoo emptied out!!!  This is a wildly busy intersection.

This bird, it turns out, is a Kookaburra. One of the employees played a video of a different Kookaburra, and this bird was not happy!  During his agitation, we did get to hear his 'laugh,' just like the song!

No wait for the tram at the end of the day!  But the giraffe feeding stand was closed. = (

Tiny world on the top of a fence post!

We saw all the kangaroos this time!

A quick stop into the, practically deserted, reptile room on our way out!

And, as it was a Friday, we called in an order to our favorite Battle Creek Chinese place.  It was ready to go when we arrived, and still hot when we got home!

It was really nice to go back to the zoo so quickly, hopefully we'll make it down a few more times this summer!

later days

edit 6-7-25: backdated for continuity.