Despite the fact that it was 95 degrees this weekend, we decided to venture down to Asheboro to check out North Carolina's zoo.
Papa and mama were excited to take me because I've seemed especially excited about animals lately. When they told me we were going, I spent all morning listing the animals I wanted to see. Since the two big ones were elephants and giraffes, we started off our trip in the African part of the zoo.
The NC Zoo is different than others we've been to because it is focused more on creating a natural habitat for the animals, with paths around the habitats and viewing areas for visitors. This means the zoo is very spread out. But someone was thinking when they built the zoo, because all of the pats through the zoo are heavily wooded and shady, a plus for a 95 degree day.
Plus, they had cool exhibits about what it is like to study animals in the wild.
Mama and I went on a helicopter ride looking for elephants that we were tracking.
I was pleased to fly all by myself.
Mama almost packed us up and went home because as soon as we got to a viewing area, I immediately announced "Let's go see something else." Often times I wouldn't even look at the animal before expressing my desire to see a different one. Not so pleasing when you're pushing a double stroller 200 yards between viewing stations.
But I was nice and cooled it before mama threw me over the fence to the rhinos.
As usual, the coolest things we saw often weren't the biggest things. Mama was particularly interested in these frogs in the lions' habitat.
Too bad there's no sense of scale, because we swear these frogs were the size of dinner plates.
And what would a zoo be without huge bronze statues? Juner wasn't interested in getting her picture taken.
I watched for a few seconds when the lions came out.
Papa spotted a garter snake (we hope) slithering down the path. But I was more interested in mama showing me where the snake would be on the map, and probably didn't even see the real one. So what if I find more pleasure pouring over a map and plotting our course for the day than actually seeing anything? I get that from mama.
Inside the jungle, I splayed a few games before mama accidentally slammed my finger in the door. My pain was only remedied by a banana and the promise of a zoo favorite...
...the carousel. As usual, I shunned the moving animals for a stationary post. But we were pleased to see that this bird's nest spun.
After lunch, papa treated us to a cool treat- ice cream. June was funny because she was trying to lick the cone like I did.
Everyone was eager for their turn, often proclaiming that mama was not sharing like she promised.
Eventually, June gave up licking and just tried to grab as much ice cream as she could.
The zoo was about 2 miles long and soon the heat caught up with June and she took off her pants and fell asleep in the back of the stroller clutching her water. It's going to be a long summer for June. Whenever she gets hot, she refuses to eat and will only chug cup after cup of water.
Luckily, she woke up in time for the highlight of our trip- the shuttle ride back to our van.
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