At The Zoo.....

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo;
How about you, you, you?
You can come too, too, too.
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.

                       ~Tom Paxton, Going To The Zoo

I have taken the summer off for the most part, but our school has a summer program that I am occasionally helping out with. My first summer "adventure" was a trip last week to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, SC. We took the school-aged kids (kindergarten-5th) from our 3 schools on our annual trek up the highway.

We had to get a few pics of the kids before they set out to see the sights.

 This big guy and I have a history. A few years ago, my niece (2 yrs.old) dropped my daughter's monkey lunchbox souvenir over the side and he got it. We had to call the zookeeper over to get it out so he wouldn't get hurt. The zookeeper gave it back with giant teethmarks in it. My niece takes it for show and tell now each year. Luckily, nothing like that happened on this trip!

 We saw lots of pretty birds!

The lemurs were cool! (I've always wanted to meet Zoboomafoo!

 The Silverbacks are amazing!

 This guy got loose last year the day after our visit. He created a little havoc, and a few folks were hurt, but thankfully measures were taken to prevent that ~ hopefully!! He's happily back at home.

We got there in time to see the feeding. We were inside a building (pictures through the glass) and the Silverbacks were outside. The zookeepers threw the food down from the roof into the brush for the gorillas to get. They are pretty good and will reach up to catch a head of romaine lettuce with one hand!

 We stopped by the giraffes to check them out.

It was so cool to have them eat right out of our hands! The kids were fascinated by their long purple tongues.

This little guy's name is Lewis. He is absolutely adorable!

We were chillin' with the elephants!

Isn't this guy too cute?

These little meercats seem so intelligent!

Hey, we found Timon! Hakuna Matata!

Riverbanks has an aviary with tropical birds that you can walk through and see them close up.

 You can purchase nectar to feed the birds. Mr. S didn't realize they would just start landing on you if you had the nectar in your hands!

Soon, it was like a mini feeding frenzy!

One of the dads bought our group Icees to cool us down. Thanks, Mr.S!
We had a great time and many of the friends enjoyed a much needed nap on the long drive back to school.

I'll leave you with one of our family's favorite zoo songs. It's not preschool appropriate, but it's a classic and we love it! (This is a pretty cool montage to the song!)

Simon and Garfunkel's "At The Zoo":