ShangHai Zoo

We went to the Zoo, and had 'great fun'! Note: 'great fun'- a word I'm adding to my vocab after establishing a great friendship with Charmain, from India...

Hunter with the Flamingos.

Tim got the boys 'binoculars', or as Hunter would say "Bio-noculars".

Camel rides available upon request.

Me just a sheet of glass away from this amazing creature. It truly felt like a spiritual experience seeing this majestic animal.

Then we saw them outside. You know how when you were a kid, you used to think that above all the noise, some animals would hear and interact with you... like they knew you or heard you?

Apparently, I never out-grew that. And I kept calling for this panda. Look to the Left of the tires, he's hanging upside down. Then later he did summer salts back to back down the hills. I told the kids "you know he did that just because you came today, right?"

My dudes.

My dudes.

Bio-noculars.

Look closely, do you see that black vertical object? That's a bear on a leash.

There he is again. Animal rights activists, don't come after me... lol

Then there was the poodles that kept this positions for at least 10 minute stretches.

This part cracked me up. We all know Ostriches can be some real mean birds, possibly deadly. And look, home boy here is pecking his head over the 3 foot fence, like it's nothin'.

Here he is giving me the eye.

And instead of making the fence high and restraining the animal, the sign indicates restraining the human, lol. Let's translate "please don't step over the fence to chase the ostriches".

This is a forget-me-not Hunter picked for me. I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for the name of this flower. While in Taiwan, Dave (my #3 brother) sent a one liner "forget me not". My brothers are some of the best!

Tim swinging with the boys. I wish I had pictures of all the fun stuff I do with them, but there's never a photographer at those times, ;).

My dude.

Tanz in his favorite spot.

Never mind the random elephant held by a very thin little rope (think pencil thin). Not that a thicker rope would restrain him, but anyway.

The latter is so you can crawl up top his back for pictures. We opted out.

But this little baby reminded me of the one we met in Thailand named "chocolate". I loved him at first sight!

Apparently the feeling was mutual, lol, he kept slobbering us with his trunk.

Then there was a part of the trip where you get to get in a vehicle, and go through large caged sections of the zoo (think Jurassic park with the ultra high voltage tall fences). This was the Lion section. There were tons, everywhere.

Then the bear section. We must've seen every species of Bear within.

This on just jumped out of the lake.

Then the Tiger section. this one got close. But as you can see, there was glass between us.

Funny little primates, they had limbs that reminded me of humans.

Then a final picture of the boys and I.