Visit to the Zoo

A couple of weekends ago, Elvin took the kids to the zoo.  Emily wasn't feeling well so she stayed at home.  We realized that we had memberships still but hadn't gone for a long time during the day.  The last few years, we had only during at night to see the lights.

Quite a lot has changed since we were last there.  For one thing, they've changed the big sign in the front.

There is a goat statue in the front and the kids always like to get on it.

We watched the Bird Show.  It was really neat because they had many of the birds fly from behind the crowd to the front where the stage is at.  They had this red tailed hawk fly so close to where Elvin and Gabe were seated, that Gabe jumped off of Elvin's lap, "just in case" Gabe said.

The zookeeper asked the audience to guess how heavy this bird was.  People's guesses ranged from 9 pounds to 15 pounds.  She then let us know that this hawk came in at a mere 3 pounds!

We went to the bear exhibit and the kids compared themselves to the bear figures on the wall.

They had feeding time for the elephants and enticed them to go into the elephant enclosure's swimming pool by feeding them slices of apples and sweet potatoes.  The baby elephant, which does not look like a baby anymore, liked to perch himself on the edge and open his mouth wide like a baby bird.  The keeper then tossed the goodies directly into his mouth.

The polar bears were having a special treat as well.  They threw down a salmon carcass and the bear was happily devouring the whole thing, fins and all.

Again, the kids wanted to figure out how big they were compared to the actual size of the animal.  You will notice in the picture below that they lined themselves up by matching the size of the animal to the size of the kid--meaning, Eliana being the tallest kid stood in front of the tallest bear, etc.

We've been having a heat wave up here, with temperatures getting up into the 100's.  It was still in the 90's but the kids still enjoyed getting themselves wet in the misting station set up by the zoo for this exact purpose.

How does Xiao Yu measure up to an orangutan?

Here is an actual female orangutan.  We found out from the zookeeper that she was 57 years old!  That put her as the oldest animal in this zoo and also the animal who has been the longest at this zoo. She has had 6 babies and is now "retired" and is now living out the rest of her life here....the zookeeper said most orangutans have a lifespan of up to 60 years.

We also watched the penguins being fed.  They got to eat anchovies.

Here's a video of the cute little penguins diving for their fishy treats.

Because it was so warm, the kids got to eat shave ice.  Two kids had to share one.  The only problem was that Gabe knocked down the one that he and Karina were sharing, so about 70% of it fell on the ground.  He had to mooch off of Eliana to get any as Elvin wouldn't let him eat much of what was left of his.

There were some planters around and Elvin videoed a hummingbird, in slow motion, feeding on the flowers' nectars.

The kids enjoyed petting the goats, especially Xiao Yu.

In the goat enclosure, there are various structures and equipment for the goats to play with to keep from getting too bored.  Elvin caught our boys on tape, nudging up against a huge bristly thing that looked like it was for goats to scratch their backs on...

Towards the exit, there were little statues of pikas.  Which for some reason Gabe was enamored with.

And there they are on the poor goat statue again.

By the time they left the zoo, they have been walking around for six hours and now it was dinnertime!  They stopped by a nearby Chinese restaurant which is way better than any of the restaurants in Vancouver, and everyone ate their fill!