ZOO Time

And I don't mean it's a zoo around here.  While Sophia and Natalie were here this weekend we went to the Richmond Zoo.  I was afraid it wouldn't stand up to the National Zoo they visit in DC but I was definitely wrong. When we paid for our admission we also bought a cup of food and a food stick for each girl.  Boy, was that the right thing to do! 

We arrived right after it opened and the animals were awake and hungry for the most part.  And NOISY! This guy reminded me so much of the king in Madagascar.  Those artists really must have studied ringtail lemurs to get the movements and postures correct. 

This monkey, I don't remember looking at the tag so he might have been something like a monkey but not really a monkey.  There were a lot of gibbons at the zoo so he might have been a gibbon! Yea, he probably was a gibbon.

It really looks like the girls were in with the gibbon but there was a glass between them.  This cute guy was hooting and hollering the whole time we were with him.  He sounded surprisingly like a some little girls I know.  He had a small ledge that he sat on while he watched the kids as the kids watched him. 

We saw a lot of other animals before we came to the big attraction of the Richmond Zoo -- the giraffes. Who wouldn't want to try to feed a giraffe? As we walked over to the giraffe enclosure we had giraffes on both side of us and we were actually looking at some right in the face!  It turns out that part of their enclosure is much lower so we could get a view of their faces up close and personal.

Yep, we could feed the giraffes but um, that was a long, wet, black tongue that came out to eat the pellets. Yuck! 

The girls weren't too sure about feeding this guy. Although eventually Sophie did but Natalie was all for dropping the pellets close by. 

Pat got to pet this one.  He was a younger giraffe with nice smooth antlers? Tops?  The older giraffe's tops? antlers? had lots of nobs on them. 

Next up was a little petting section.  Of course the animals were much more interested in the food the girls were holding. 

And then there was the sneaky camel.  He was happy to eat the food you gave him but when you started paying attention to the goats in the same enclosure he started eating your jacket or purse or a baby's outfit.  He didn't care what he tried to get! 

Near all the enclosures that allowed us to feed the animals there was hand sanitizer stations of which we made liberal use.

The Budgie enclosure was really cool except Natalie really didn't like lots of birds hanging around her.  The stick food was to feed these birds. 

These birds were swarming whoever had a stick.  Some were pretty aggressive keeping others from getting to "their" food.  This was a great way to see canaries and budgies up close and personal...whether you wanted to or not!  Natalie was all about not.

We took a train ride to see some of the animals in a more natural habitat.  Pat and Sophie got a cute selfie. 

After a couple of hours the girls were getting tired and hungry.  We decided to leave the other section of the zoo for another day.  Yep, I'd say the girls really enjoyed the Richmond Zoo and will probably want to go see the animals they missed next time they come down.  Hopefully it won't be dead of summer.  By the time we were leaving the animals were quiet.  All but one of the prairie dogs was sleeping. The gibbon wasn't howling.  It was time to let the animals take a mid-afternoon siesta.  We could use a nap too.  

It's time for me to get back to quilting.  I have one more customer quilt to get done this week.  And, then there are Christmas presents waiting to be done.  

Happy Quilting All!