Zoo Atlanta

This past weekend was my school system's fall break. Since I had several days off, Brian and I decided to take the kids to Atlanta. We did so many fun things in the few days that we were there. Our first stop was Zoo Atlanta. It was my first time visiting this zoo, and I have to say that it is my new favorite. It's not very big, but it is shady and laid out well. There is also a good selection of animals and a nice children's play area.

Olivia liked looking at all of the animals. Once again, the elephants were one of her favorites. She also had a great time at the naked mole rat exhibit because there were kid-sized tunnels leading into and out-of the naked mole rat building. She really liked crawling through those. It was easy to tell which exhibits that she liked and which she didn't. When she was ready to move on she would say "I wanna see somethin' else". I cannot count how many times I heard this phrase. It seemed like every time I turned around she was either saying "I wanna see somethin' else" or "I wanna hold it". I think that she saw everything (but fortunately she did not hold anything).

The animal that I was most anxious to see was the panda bear. I had never seen one before, and Zoo Atlanta is one of only four zoos in the U.S. that has them. The panda in this picture is a two-year old cub. A new cub was born at the end of August, but he was not on display (of course). The zoo did have a camera hooked up to the room where the new cub was, so we could see him on video. The zoo now has four bears total, two which have been born at the zoo. I actually watched a documentary about the two-year old cub on Animal Planet earlier in the year. It took a lot of work for him to even be here.

Another exhibit that Zoo Atlanta is famous for is the gorilla exhibit. The zoo has one of the largest gorilla populations of any zoo in the world. Its most famous gorilla, Willie B., passed away a little while back, but there is a statue commemorating him as well as a gorilla conservation building in his honor. Here are my little (and big) gorillas posing with the Willie B. statue.

Olivia had a great time at the zoo. Owen was too young to enjoy it, but he did like being outside in the stroller. Cassie met up with us for most of the attractions, and she was always happy to push, hold, or carry her niece and nephew. We were so tired when we left the zoo that we went directly to our hotel room and did not leave again that day. Little did we know that the zoo was only the beginning of what would be a fun-filled weekend.