the zoo

as i'm told it has been in most of our area, the weather has been fantastic here. however, one can only play on the beach so much (especially when you're around it all the time). so warren and i finally made good on our plans to visit the Gulf Breeze Zoo. he was SO excited when i showed him the website, claiming "I want to see the gorillas first, mommy!"

well, after an immediate pit stop at the restroom, and then the purchase of our tickets (including tickets for the train ride!), our cup of feed, and the promise of returning for a souvenir, we ended up starting off at the petting zoo. our first stop was at some sort of bull. but it was a bull calf, so not too ominous. warren still shied away after his initial interest, stating "eek! mommy! too scary!"



so we moved on to the goats? or was it lambs?



and then to the sheep. oh boy - this was more warren's style!







that last shot was capturing a sweet tendency warren was showing; he was making sure that each animal got his fair share - he fussed and said "shoo! you've had plenty!" when the same one tried to muscle in for more. precious child (even if i am biased)!

this red fence was where lots of billy goats and other similar creatures were housed - including a boar!. warren was giggling so much about the animals eating out of his hand that people started coming up just to see warren. it was funny.



here wee man is directing me (go figure); we were headed off to the right, but then he caught sight of the giraffes and quickly pointed us off to the left!






unfortunately, i had to pick warren up to let him feed the giraffes, so no shots here. their enclosure was pushed back too far to let even their long necks reach warren's height. boo. he really got a kick out of them.

up next were the llamas. now, i should know all about being wary of llamas, considering there is (was?) a resident llama named Sydney out at the farm in Becker...but i kind of forgot. so i poured out the food into warren's hand and let him feed the llama. warren giggled, and then moved on to find the next llama to feed.


and that's when i got this look.


and THEN i saw the sign stating "feed with cup". oops. no harm done, but we moved along anyway. sorry llamas...

there were some nifty birds, all of whom warren referred to as "beaky"...






and at last we arrived at the monkeys! not the gorillas yet, but these little fellows (whom i'm sure have some fancier name than "monkey") were fun to watch.


well, sort of. this one made me sad. all animals in cages make me sad in a way, actually - not that they have much choice, or that they wouldn't be subjected to far more gruesome demises out in the wild, but still. they look so bored. but enough of my soft heart...



about that time i got a text from ben, glanced at the clock on my phone and realized the train was leaving the station in one minute! yikes! the rides only start once an hour, so i really didn't want to miss this one. i actually started running, telling warren that we had to hurry so we didn't miss the train - and would you believe he actually started running after me? we got a couple of raised eyebrows, but the conductor saw us coming and held the train for a minute more. and we ended up in the front seat, too! what fun!






there were all sorts of nifty animals out in this part of the zoo. it's a cageless (if you don't count the fences) preserve setting for the zebras and larger orangutan/gorilla types...i couldn't really hear the names of everything (and wasn't exactly taking notes), but it was fun to see:








did you know that hippopotami are more dangerous than a lion or a tiger? i didn't remember that - apparently they're fiercely territorial? oh well - hooray for fences! there goes my soft heart, right?


at last, the gorillas! and wouldn't you know it - warren had zero interest at this point. i don't know if he expected them to be bigger, like the "ape man" on one of his scooby-doo episodes, but i got nothing. nada. no excitement from kiddo at this juncture. oh well.



wasn't much for the ostriches either - but i thought they were cool. had no idea they were that tall!



the train arrived back at the station, and with some minor urging i was able to get warren to go through the rest of the exhibits with me...but as you can see, the grins and swagger from earlier are losing their "oomph":






the tigers were sleeping too, which didn't help matters...


but then, oh yes, then! a spark! there was a 50 cent merry-go-round! there was life yet in my warren. he especially liked the red horse!


and then we hit the gift shop on the way out (as evidenced by the brightly colored shopping bag warren's hand), and headed towards the car. warren had to make a pit stop at the elephant fountain out front to inquire why there were so many coins in the bottom. i had to quickly inform him that they are NOT there for us to remove, and even more importantly, we are not to DRINK the water! yuck!!!



all in all, it was a good outing. if you're in the pensacola/navarre area, i would definitely recommend the Gulf Breeze Zoo on 98. hope you have as much fun as we did!