Visiting the Zoo

This week was spring break....not that I got one, but all of those in school had one. I decided that it would be fun to take Brenda, Nicole and Mom to the Boise Zoo. We had planned on going on Wednesday because of my work schedule and Brenda's schedule with the Development Center that she attends. Of course, that had to be the day we had bad weather. The night before I watched the weather report and they said it was suppose to rain. When I got up Wed. morning I looked at the weather channel website and looked at the hour-by-hour forecast, they said that until noon there was a 5% chance of rain and around 2:00 pm on was higher than 50% chance of showers. So we decided to still go. Of course once we got into the Zoo, it started to rain and it didn't stop until late afternoon (don't worry, we brought our umbrellas). Oh well, we still had fun. There weren't a lot of people there (probably because of the weather) and we did get to see most of the animals.

Below are lots of pictures that we took at the Zoo. The newest animals at the Boise Zoo are the lions and giraffes. When we first went to see them they were inside their shelters because of the rain. We got to see the giraffes through the window but couldn't get a good picture. Despite the poor weather, we still were able to get some good pictures. Here are just a few....Enjoy!

Giraffes

I got this picture about a month ago when I took my client to the Zoo.
Snow Leopard.
He is not out a lot because he is easily agitated. This cat likes to run back and forth in front of the big windows and jump up on the walls. When this happens the Zoo keepers put him in his den to calm him down. He was pacing when we walked up, but he left for a few minutes and came back. Since we were patient, we got to get a good picture of him when he's calm.

One of the Tigers. A beautiful big cat!

The giant tortoise.

When ever I'm at the Zoo, this animal never moves! However, we watched him for a few minutes and sure enough he started moving around. I love this picture, it's like he's sticking his tongue out at us and saying "Yes, I do move....slowly!"

Spider Monkey

This Monkey is in the Rain forest exhibit. We stayed inside this exhibit for a while because it was nice and warm in there. The Spider Monkey's were very active and were having fun showing off for us. Brenda sat in front of the window and put her hand on it, this monkey came up a few times and put his hand where hers was....too bad he moved when ever I tried to get a picture...

Penguins swimming...very fun to watch!

These penguins were taking turns sitting on the eggs. The Zoo has quite a few penguins, but only a few were swimming, the rest had babysitting duty.

Lions

After we walked through the whole Zoo, we decided to go back and try to see the lions. We were in luck. They were under a covering by the windows, by the African school building. (The windows are at a 90 degree angel). No zooming needed for this picture!

Brenda and the Lion King! I love the look on his face here...

Me and the lion.

Brenda decided that I needed a picture with him too. As you can see, his head is 3-4 TIMES as big as mine. He could have probably swallowed me whole. This is the closest I will ever be to this King. (and the safest too...)

Right before he swiped at Brenda.

I decided to go to the other window to look at him & the female lions. Brenda put her hat back on and tapped on the window. He didn't like that and tried to hit her (but only got below the window instead). She jumped a little, but wasn't too scared. I laughed...probably shouldn't have, but it was kinda funny, especially to see just how big his teeth and mouth really are!