Our own private zoo

Today we went to the zoo.
It was a nice day- no wind and warm temperatures as the snow begins to melt and spring starts to think about reappearing.
We anticipated that there would be a pretty big crowd joining us in seeing the animals today since it was the first warm weekend in a long while.
We were delightfully WAY off there.
We pretty much had the entire zoo to ourselves which was absolutely AMAZING.
Dolphin show?-we had the front row to ourselves. The WHOLE front row. North wants to switch around in the seats every 5 minutes?--no problem. And we were right up front so he got to see everything. He LOVED it.
Penguins?- Just us. North ran around like a maniac chasing them.
Sea lions? -Again, just us. They actually chased North back and forth across the glass and seemed as delighted to see him as he was to see them.
Tigers? Bears? Pet a shark? Every animal, every habitat, it was just us and so we could stay as long as we liked and stand where we wanted and North could run around where he felt like and laugh and talk with the beasties and no one else was there to make him shy or embarassed. It was such a great visit.
And every animal habitat seemed open just for us. North took to calling all of the animals his. "My tiger"; "My panda"; "My shark"; "My bear"; "My snake"; and given we were the only one there hanging out with them, it kind of seemed like they were there, putting on a little show, just for us.
The downside is we forgot our camera--so we missed getting some great photos of the day. But we did snap a few with our phones.

Walking around the zoo.
Note the complete and utter absence of anyone else.
You might notice that trend persists throughout every single picture we took today.

Desserts--North loves the lizards and tortoises.

Befriending the meerkats.

"My snake!"

Seal lions!

"My tiger!"

"My bear!"

The brown bears were super playful today.

Checking out the petting zoo.

Where we got to pet this guy! (amongst other animals)

This llama really likes to gnaw on wood. Including the gate of his enclosure.

N is always way into the Oceans house.

An eel swimming by.

Petting the sharks.

"My panda".
Unlike his "Kung-Fu Panda" counterpart, this red panda did not seem to know much about being a kung-fu master.

We also stopped by the White-River Gardens since admission to them is also included in our zoo pass and we had never been before.
I think North enjoyed the exotic plants.