The weather was pretty good. It was warm, and a little muggy but there was a great ocean breeze so it wasn't too bad. Lillian and Preston had a great time, even though they had the sniffles and we had to get wiping/blowing noses. The took a couple hour nap during the afternoon, so mommy and daddy had a reprieve for awhile. It was so nice to be able to enjoy, not only the peace and quiet but the animals too. We took a ton of pictures, so I will only post the ones that were our favorites. I also forgot to take any pictures of us, oh well. We spent the whole day there and we all had a great time. I will of course make sure we take the same route next time because we were able to bypass all but 2 or 3 major hills and by that I mean we only had to walk down them as oppose to walking up them. So nice!! I am already looking forward to the next time that we can go, we all had a really wonderful time and enjoyed our little get-away immensely. Plus Lillian did miss some of the animals so she wants to go back to see them.
(Thanks Daddy for making our trip possible!! We love you and appreciate all your hard work!)
Our first stop, after the bathrooms :)!! I thought it was a beautiful garden and pond. The ducks Lillian loved, of course!
A closer view of the ducks and the pond.
Meerkats. Lillian has been so fascinated with them since her first encounter with them at the LA Zoo. I just think they have a cool name and well they are kind of cute!!
We arrived at the giraffes and discovered this! Hmmm interesting way to drink water, but I guess it works! LOL
We must have spent 15 minutes looking at the giraffes. Lillian thought they were so cool, she loved watching them walk around. One of them was really big, she asked me if that was the daddy and I said probably. Of course the smaller ones were the babies!!!
Baby flamingo's being introduced to their new habitat. They were born here at the zoo and the women with them, the birds consider their moms. Here the lady is letting the bird "pacify" on her finger. Pretty cool!!
After traveling down one of the little trails we rounded a corner to find our selves face to face with a snow leopard. The photo doesn't it do him justice. He is such a gorgeous animal. I have never been able to be so close to one before and it was simply amazing. I was able to capture him in between bites of breakfast. ;)
Another beautiful big cat!!! I think Leopards are one of my favorites. I zoomed in on this picture so you can see how big and ferocious he is. He is a North Chinese Leopard.
The leopards quarters were on a hill so he could have lots of places to climb!
Domestic Bactrian Camel from SW Asia!! I thought they were pretty cool looking!!
A Sloth Bear. One of the only bears we were able to capture their face!
African Elephants. We actually had lunch at a little place right next to the elephants because I knew Lillian would love it. She had so much fun being able to sit and watch the elephants walk around their gigantic exhibit.
I was hoping we would be able to see all the big cats up and awake, but alas, the African Lions were taking a "cat nap." Here is the mommy as Lillian called her.
and here is the "daddy" lion. They were both right next to the glass so we got to see how big they are. So amazing!!!
Just before we got to the lions we came across my absolute favorite cat, the Jaguar. The reason he is looking like this because his dinner just went walking by on a leash. LOL Some kind of medium size dog, called a "something singing dog. Not sure if he was a part of the zoo or not because we never ran across anything like that at any of the exhibits. Anyway, he went crazy when he saw that dog. He was all over this corner of his pen. I can imagine what he would have been like had he been able to get his lunch!!
"Hey!!! Come back with my lunch!!!"
Guanaco's!! Which we lovingly refer to as Llama's!!
We went around the corner and all of these guys ran around and just stood there watching us. I thought it was so hilarious!!
One of my favorite animals are Polar Bears. I think they are so beautiful. There were two of them and "mommy and a daddy" Their exhibit was so beautiful!!
Panda Bears!! So stinkin cute!
Lillian loves crocodile's. If you look closely you can see him peeking out of the water. We must have stayed here checking him out for 15 minutes before Lillian would finally let us leave.
Tigers resting in the shade trying to stay cool. So beautiful!!
The funniest looking turtles I have ever seen. Some of them had snake like necks!!
Our only monkey pictures. (Lillian was having a "I just woke up from my nap and am still tired" moment)
Of course we had to see the flamingos!! Lillian insisted we stay here from like 15 minutes so she could watch them. She was so fascinated them.
Lillian insisted that we go check out the snakes, frogs and lizards. So here are a few of the ones that turned out the best. We really wanted to see some of the poisonous frogs, but they were all hiding, or really hard to take a picture. This snake is a Rare Pit-Viper.
Not sure what this one was. But he looked really cool to Lillian!
A Java Angleheaded lizard.
Golden Mantella frog.
Argentine Leaf Folding frog. There are actually 2 of them. See if you can find the other one.
Indian Gharial Crocodiles!! They were actually a little ways off, so I had to zoom in on this one too. Lillian loved seeing all the reptiles and we had a really hard time getting her to leave. She kept going back and forth inside the snake, frog and lizard house to look at them over and over.
