Zoo Atlanta

We crammed a whole lotta fun into our first Summer trip to visit the grandparents! As always, there are a billion photos to blog. I thought I'd start with the zoo.

The Zoo in Atlanta is 10 times better than the one near us. Our Zoo takes 30 minutes to walk through, even with seeing all the animals. Zoo Atlanta takes 2.5 hours. Our Zoo costs $5 for admission. Zoo Atlanta is more like $20. You definitely get what you pay for!

Jaina's been to this zoo three times now, Jayce only twice, and this was Jocelyn's first visit, of course :)

First stop, Flamingos.

They were bathed in such pretty morning light :) The rest of the time I had to deal with high middle of the day light and harsh shadows.

The Parakeet Exhibit was new. You walked through their enclosure and got to see them close up!

No, we didn't get pooped on, either!

Next up, a warthog.

After watching The Lion King a billion times with my sister and now my own kids, I have a soft spot in my heart for warthogs.


I can't figure out of that is a mommy, daddy, and baby giraffe?

 Or a mommy, daddy, and teenager giraffe.

Ah... the only animal we really came to see. A rhino.

I really wish he had been standing in more even lighting. I asked him to move so I could get a better picture, but he ignored me. Jayce was super thrilled. He's just a little obsessed with rhinos.

Kids or lion cubs? 

Its just too hard to tell! :P

I loved watching the momma gorilla and her baby. And totally regretted not owning a 70-200 mm lens.

Then it was on to the Reptile House. I don't like snakes or spiders, but lizards are okay.

We all love Red Pandas, too. Both Jaina and Jayce have stuffed animal beanie babies named Rusty The Red Panda. Our local zoo has a Red Panda, but his enclosure is very small and he's hard to get pictures of. I think I might have to print this next one for our house.

Now that's how Red Pandas are supposed to live :)

Speaking of pandas.... we saw some of those regular ones from China, too.

Jaina's sad that I missed capturing the shot of this above panda scratching his butt on the rocks. I can't say I'm all that sad.

This tiger was creeping me out. 

He was pacing back and forth in his enclosure. I'm not a huge fan of tigers caged in zoos. If there is one animal that seems to express how unhappy they are being locked up in this unnatural environment, its the tiger.

Oh, and I did take pictures of my KIDS at the zoo. They just didn't turn out well. They were wild monkeys. I kinda thought that they would be asked to join an exhibit.