San Francisco Zoo

Today was another full day spent exploring the San Francisco Zoo.  It has been a long time since we have been to visit -- way too long, so I'm glad we were able to meet our friends here and enjoy the day.

Upon arrival, we met a nice docent who was showing off this huge foot of a bird... a cassowary, to be exact.  The children became more interested in her talk when she asked if any of them had seen the movie, Up.  As you may know... we have most of that movie memorized... so our ears perked up when she informed us that they character, Kevin, was based on a cassowary!  Check out how big the foot is!!!  (not sure why E's face is like that!)

On with the tour... Are you ready for the animals that we saw?
Oryx:

Zebra:

Giraffe:

Climbing the statues... no signs stating not to... so, of course, they did!

Silver back gorilla:

Just to give you an idea how far away he was:

Oh... made around the area and it was feeding time for this giraffe!

Walked by a table of eager volunteers who were showing off various bird feather and this huge ostrich wing!

A sea lion (this was new to me...hadn't seen this the last time we were here):

Beautiful macaws:

And check out this big boy.... an anaconda!!!

Look how close his head is to E's!

They were so excited to see this new up close and personal exhibit of the tarantulas!  So, 2 thumbs up for this exhibit!

EEEEEEkkkkkkkk!!!!!

too funny:

A bear:

Everyone was questioning the state of this guy/gal...  Why was he/she pink?!

Another bear sighting...

There it is!

A bald eagle!

A rare sighting... a boy tarantula:

A peacock/hen? (a bit confusing for some children... why are peacocks male and have such pretty feathers... here we go with the explanation of the birds and the bees... but let's not get into that and take the picture!)

a scary boy tarantula!!!!

Look at our group!

Oh... a real live one!

Yay for the SF Zoo!!!!

I am so proud of them today -- we had so much fun!  (despite the chaos of all the children running around and driving some of us moms batty!)

You might not be able to tell... but they are ant eaters!

A tapir (and I only know about it because of an episode of Go Diego! Go!)

Awesome penguins:

love their house:

 These volunteers are letting them see a real penguin egg and feel a wing of a penguin:

A very shy rhinoceros:

enough read... ;)

But the lions were not home... just one sleepy tiger!

So off we went again!

This hippopotamus was so cool to watch!

They all tried to climb up this hippo statue... E fell off once already - hence the sad face!

There's another tiger:

Glad we are this far away from it!

And look how sweet these two are!

MG wanted to hold them!

And this kangaroo had them mesmerized for awhile:

So neat!

We then went along the path and stopped to pet a tortoise:

Off to the Children's Zoo!

 See a statue.. climb...simple pleasures of being a child:

 Check out these cute little rabbits and guinea pigs!

 These prairie dogs were adorable... one of them found a sock and was nibbling on it - hope the child was not attached at one time, ha ha!

 There are our prairie digs!  ;)

 These are funny things, aren't they?!

This was their second favorite place t visit  -- the petting zoo (although I am NOT a fan of these places!).  Some of the goats are pretty aggressive - luckily none were today (phew!):

 These tractors were lots of fun!  (that's MG with Ava... we watched her when she was a baby... she just turned 5 and starting Kindergarten!)

 The last place we visited was the bug house!  Yikes... Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches!

 I love this dresser/drawer full of bugs -- awesome!

 these are grasshoppers -- so big!!!

 my favorite -- the walking sticks!

 forgot what these were called...something nymph:

Our day finally came to an end!

 And that was the end of our tour... We saw most of the animals... but sadly we missed the cassowary... so we will make that our next priority when we visit again!  I hope to return sooner rather than later!  Since our Happy Hollow membership expires soon, we might just purchase a membership here afterwards - since both zoo provide 50% off our admission tickets when we have a membership to either zoo!  That is always a bonus!  :)