I'm going to the zoon Mommy!

For Father's Day, we drove up to the Minnesota Zoo with good friends Heather and Adam. Josiah loved the "zoon". He was equally (sometimes more) excited about the constant airplanes overhead and the "BIG TRAIN!" (aka the zoo's tram). Here are a few fun pictures from the "zoon".

Josiah had no fear of feeding the baby goats. Notice that he had to open his mouth extremely wide - either trying to get the goat to mimic him, or in total nerves. Note to mommy: Remember lots of change next time.
The new exhibit "Russia's grizzly coast" makes the entire trip worth it. Not that the rest of the zoo isn't fun, but the zoos in MN aren't all that exciting once you've been to a great zoo. This exhibit actually shows an effort to catch up and make this a competitor. We were mesmorized - child and 4 adults alike. No, perhaps the adults more than the child. First you get to sit in a small cave stadium and watch the otters swim and play. The glass puts you inches from the otters - and goes from above ground to the bottom of their pool - so you have a total view of everything. So cool.
Note that the empty seat next to my boys represents pass #2 through the exhibit. Do not visit the zoo on a holiday, nor on any weekend day. We waited in line to get into the exhibit, and then waited our turn for a seat in the little stadiums. Well worth the wait - but keep in mind that everyone wants to spend their whole day in the lull of watching the animals swim.
Yes - next it is the bears. A much bigger area, and a much bigger glass wall. This is my kid about to do a high-five with the bear. (Thanks, Heather, for actually snapping a shot seconds later when the high-five happened). This was amazing. The bears were swimming and playing in the water or chasing the fish for the duration of our two visits to see them. They are amused by the dropped jaw folk staring at them and come right up to your face and give you a show. Once again, inches from the animals. SO cool.

At any rate, we took a ton of pictures and had a wonderful afternoon at the zoon. I can't get him to drop the "N". Two bummers - Josiah is going through a phase where he is afraid of loud noises. In the aquatic area, there is a water feature (where you can touch the starfish) that drops a zillion gallons of water every couple of minutes. He cried and clutched me so hard I had bruises. Secondly, the arena for the dolphin show is incredibly small. You had to wait for more than an hour to get a spot - and they don't have enough shows for everyone to get a chance. So no dolphin show. A bigger bummer is that there is no way to view the dolphins other than the show - so that was unfortunate.

We learned a few lessons for next time, but will definitely be back. On a random Tuesday morning with a bag of ice water packed.