Giraffes and Rhinos and Bears....Oh MY!

On Friday night at the end of June, Kevin looked at me and said, "Do you wanna go to the zoo tomorrow?" I looked back at him and said, "sure, why not?" And with that, we decided to take both boys to the San Francisco Zoo just one month after Beckett entered the world. Crazy? Well, some may say that I am crazy, but we packed up the van Saturday morning with strollers, lunch, diapers, etc. and left for San Francisco. I am happy that we still do things spur of the moment even though we have two kids now. It doesn't always go that well, but at least we try and usually have a great time no matter the outcome.
We know that it is always a tad bit colder in San Fran than in Livermore, but we weren't quite prepared for the 55 degree weather (well, kevin wasn't really prepared wearing his shorts and pullover). You wouldn't think it was possible for it to drop 15 degrees on the way there, but it did. I have to say that I would much rather be at the zoo in 55 degree weather than 105 degree weather in Atlanta.
So we arrived at the zoo and decided to buy an annual pass since we would pay for it in three visits anyway. The only thing we were disappointed by was that there weren't any elephants which, if you know Maddox, you understand why that was a problem. However, they did have hippos and rhinos which to him are pretty much the same because they are all big and grey.

                     Here is Maddox all ready to take the trip to the zoo!

I think I was most impressed by this giraffe. I have never seen one up close from this height. It was so neat seeing his beautiful coat. He/she was enjoying the leaves on this tree.

We tried to keep Maddox in his stroller as long as possible. It didn't last long.

Maddox's reaction to the giraffe.

This is the mandrill, but to me it looked like a baboon. Maybe it is a cousin of the baboon. Either way, it is seen here scratching its rear end.

 

Coming for a closer view of us.

I had to get this shot of his pink and blue bum, so colorful and pretty. LOL

                               Maddox was impressed!

 This gorilla was Kevin's favorite animal of the day. We stood here for a long time. There was a baby gorilla, but I didn't get a good shot of it.

                Maddox was a little tired by this point.

There were some baby penguins in that box. They were so fluffy.

         Maddox picked the spider for his photo op!

These grizzlies were a little too close for comfort. They were behind glass, but I wasn't so sure that they couldn't come right through that glass. I could already see the headline, "family mawled by grizzly standing too close to the glass."

 We lived to see the polar bears.

The petting zoo was not as much of a hit as we thought it would be. Maddox wasn't too keen on petting anything with horns. Smart kid!

 This duck was probably my favorite animal of the day. Look at his baby blue bill. After asking a zoo docent about this exotic duck....she told me that they are very common and are in a pond near her house. Basically, I could have seen it anywhere. Oh well, I guess I am easily amused.

 Why do they stand on one foot?

And that is the end of our first San Francisco Zoo adventure....many more to come. Besides having to fend off birds as we were eating our lunch, we had a safe and fun trip!

This was my view on the way out of San Fran...I had to put this on here for my family back home to see. It is so crazy to see so many houses in one spot.