Road Trip, Day 1

So, as mentioned, we took a little trip to Hawaii in October. We managed to keep it a complete secret from the kids until we put our suitcases on the shuttle to take us from the hotel to the airport in Seattle. How, you ask, did we manage that? Well, the kids really helped us by having asked several times in the past to go to the Woodland Zoo in Seattle. So, on Wednesday October 7th, we told them we were playing "hooky" for a day and going to the zoo, and staying overnight in Seattle (that explained the suitcases all around). Despite their suspicions when they realized their bathing suits were missing from their dressers, they didn't think for a moment that we were going back to Hawaii. So, none the wiser, the kids thoroughly enjoyed a gorgeous, sunny Fall day at the zoo. These are some of the "characters" we met at the zoo...

"What are you looking at? It's a genetic thing!" This fine fellow was in a large, enclosed room where numerous types of very colourful tropical birds were uncaged. It was quite an experience to have budgies and parrots and cockatiels zipping by under your nose or right behind your head!
The grizzly habitat... one of the most impressive and natural-looking living spaces I have ever seen for a captive animal. The photo is taken from behind a massive wall of glass that opens out to a view of almost the entire space. The water you see in the front of the photo comes right up to the window, where it is about 4' deep. You can see tons of trout swimming in the water right in front of the window, and the grizzlies come down to the water for snacks. Cool!

This guy literally appeared out of nowhere. One second, I'm looking at grass and trees, I blinked, and he was standing there staring right at me. Kind of gives you a shiver, trust me!

Nice to see that cats are cats, the world over. This one's partner was sacked out in the deep grass in the front of the picture... all you could see were two ears twitching every once in a while.

They didn't come much cuter than this guy. He's a "wild dog", according to the sign. He looks like he should be sleeping on the foot of my bed!!!

All in all, the Woodland Zoo is highly recommended. It's huge at 92 acres, very well laid out, and a quiet, peaceful oasis in the middle of a very big, busy city. It helped that the day we went in October was T-shirt weather!