Zoo Day

We had a long weekend with Thanksgiving, so took a trip out to the Richmond Zoo.  It was a good day trip, and we had a good time running around looking at all the animals.  The small monkeys sat right in the window and we were face to face.  Evan and I walked through the bird cage - you could buy "seeds on a stick" for $1 - and had so many little blue and yellow and green birds (parakeets?) land on our arms and head and shoes.  Evan wasn't at all a fan of the birds landing on him to eat off the stick, but he held it together, walking slowly and not crying, until we were through the cage.  The biggest adventure was at the tiger cage.  Four huge gorgeous tigers were in their enclosure, and we stood at the window, watching.  Either something about Drew or my red backpack caught the eye of a huge white tiger, who got up from resting, walked straight to the window, and began pawing gently at the window - right on our faces.  She licked the glass, stared right into our eyes, and pawed several times at the glass with her huge feet.  Incredible!  Another fun time was over at the giraffes - their enclosure is low so you are at eye level with them... and there's no barrier.  You can get (again, buy) a cup of zoo food and the giraffes stand there all day, eating the food out of your hand, or straight out of the cup.  We pet them and fed them, marveling at their long rough tongues.  Evan got brave and fed them a couple times, and Drew tolerated being near them, but wouldn't touch the huge animals.  He was much happier sitting on the merry go round.