Guest Blog: Fun at the Zoo by Elder Dog Walker

We went to the Hogle Zoo to celebrate my dad's work party. We got tickets to do a lot of the fun things we never usually do at the zoo, like getting ice cream cones, riding a train and carousel, and having a delicious dinner in the private pavilion.

Anyway, when we got to the zoo, it was really crowded, but on the bright side, we got to look at almost all the animals before we headed to the fun activities I told you about. While we were walking to see the animals, we noticed a lot of different things at the zoo, like they re-polished the lion drinking fountain, they added a Savannah exhibit where they put the zebras and lions.

 There was even some rearranging on some animal exhibits, like the giraffe building used to be on the west side, but then they moved it to the east side right by the train station and the private pavilion. They even added a new playground area where the slide was shaped like a lighthouse and they had a splashpad in there where kids could get wet and even pretend to be pirates on the fake pirate ship.

Sport

Baby Doll and Scout

Along with our adventure at the zoo, we were up by the Elephant Encounter and that's when we looked at our bracelet tickets that would let us ride the carousel. We were waiting in a long line, but not very long because there are a lot of animals on the carousel that anybody could sit on. Teach sat on a tiger while mom helped with Baby Doll to ride, especially with her broken arm.


I sat on a peacock pretending to be the King of Sheba (but not literally), since the Peacock was the shape of a seat instead of an animal saddle.  The kids enjoyed  the ride. Right after it, we went in line to get an ice cream cone. We used our ticket coupons to get a cone. Most of us picked flavor burst cones, like I picked blue goo, because I thought it sounded delicious, while the rest of the kids mostly got twists and caramel flavor burst cones.

Then we went on to see the other animals. Dad wanted to see the Polar Bears, but we decided to look at the tigers in the Asian area and probably see what else is there after we passed the tiger den.

Crafty, Princess, and Prima Donna

When we got back down, we headed over to the pavilion to see if the long lines to get some food had cleared up. They had and we got right through. We enjoyed the delicious hot dogs, potato chips, water, and soda (even though we prefer diet instead of regular). Right after dinner, we got in line to ride the train. The train was fun especially when Baby Doll was saying "Hi" to almost every animal we passed, like the zebras, lions, ostriches, giraffes, and buffalo.

Teach

Right when the train ride was over, we still had a few more things to see before the zoo closed at 9:00. Dad still wanted to see the Polar Bears, so we all went there and we explored all the other animals like the rhinos, bald eagles, sea lions, and finally one polar bear. We were a bit disappointed to not see it outside swimming in its pool. But we saw it inside trying to sleep. It was getting close to dark and the air was starting to feel like autumn already. We had a feeling that the zoo was almost ready to close, so then right when we were done with the polar bears and having a little fun on the playground and the turned-off splashpad, we started heading up the hill and to the exit.

We all had lots of fun, especially Teach on the Carousel. I hope you like all the pictures.