The Vans Down By the River: Blank Park Zoo

On September 10th, we took Grandma Sue and the boys to the zoo! We had a wonderful time exploring and learning about some of God's amazing creatures. Join us on a little tour of the Blank Park Zoo.

This was the first exciting thing that we came upon. There was a "hole" in the floor so we could see the boa constrictors. It was a little disconcerting looking through the glass at one snake that was slowly making his way up towards us. Creepy. Asher wasn't sure about the glass floor and held Phin back from "falling." Kind of nice to know he does have a protective side.

We used this bridge to cross a stream of water. We are checking out the cool waterfall that's making the stream.

Asher getting close and personal with this gecko. Don't worry, it was behind glass, although I'm not sure if a gecko is harmful or not.

Here we are looking at turtles swimming around in a pond. Later on we'll show you a tortoise.

This is a poisonous dart frog. We've read about them in books about missionaries. The frog has poison on it's skin. They use the poison to make blow darts.

Now we're entering a tropical environment. We watched the rain fall and then it got really foggy. This was the entrance to the aquarium.

Phin was scared to go near this fish tank. There were fish in there bigger than him.

Asher knew right away that these were jellyfish. They were really pretty.

This is my favorite picture of the jellyfish. I like the green in the background.

Finding Nemo. We knew there were clown fish in here somewhere, we just had to keep a look out. We found Dori right away but had to wait a bit to find Nemo.

There's Nemo!!

We finally made it outside and saw the flamingos. Their color wasn't as bright as I thought it would be. But they were sleeping in that perfect flamingo way - balancing on one leg.

This is an otter. They were so busy swimming that we didn't really get a good look at them. But the boys loved their activity. I wonder why. ;)

This is a wallaby. There was an open area where we could walk with wallabies just wandering around. Kind of funny. We were so thankful that we weren't attacked by these vicious animals. ;)

We were really surprised to see a tortoise moving...let alone "racing" towards the other tortoises. But then we realized it was a "birds-and-the-bees"-thing so we moved right along. But Jonathan had to get a picture first.

Like every good zoo, there was a petting zoo with farm animals. Phin really liked the goats and tried to feed them pebbles. I bought some food from a little vending machine. Phin really enjoyed feeding the goats. Asher, did not. He did not want to have those goats eating from his hands. So he just watched.

Here's a camel you could ride. It was extra so we just watched it make laps with other children. Again, another reason why it's nice to have children this young. They don't know what they're missing.

Here's a goat. It's some kind of fancy goat. I like to call it a billy goat because it looks like the goat from the story "Billy Goat's Gruff."

The penguins were not very active. They were just standing around. We waited a little while to see if they would dive into the water, but they didn't so we moved on.

Here's Phin watching the Penguins. Mostly he's working on his coordination as he balances on a chain while holding on to the top of the fence.

We liked watching the seals. There wasn't a demonstration planned, but they were feeding the seals and having them do tricks for food so we watched. They're pretty smart animals.

Phin and Grandma Sue.

Giving the zoo-keeper a "high-five."

We watched a demonstration of the lions. It was pretty cool. The zoo-keepers fed pieces of meat to get the lions to stand high, growl, and lie down. It was amazing and kind of scary. ;)

That look is just fierce! Imagine that lion looking at you like that instead of at a little piece of meat.

Here's a leopard or a cheetah. I can't remember. We were amazed at how thick his tail was.

Here are some zebra. The boys asked me what sound a zebra makes and I told them I didn't know. Is it something like a donkey and a horse combined?

Here are some giraffe. There were quite a few of them. The boys liked climbing the tower to get close the the giraffes that were eating. There was even a little giraffe by his dad. Cute!

Our national bird, the Bald Eagle.

We enjoyed a delicious picnic after visiting the zoo. We had PB & J sandwiches, yogurt, chips, carrots and celery, and some juice. It was a great day and I'm sure we'll be visiting the Blank Park Zoo again.