The second Tuesday of each month, the
Oregon Zoo has $2 Tuesday. The price of admission for anyone three years and older is just $2. (Children under 3 always get in for free.) Since I'm cheap and zoo
admission is normally expensive, that's been the only time I take the boys to the zoo.
In November, that Tuesday was the one decent day amidst a week of rain. Over the course of about three hours, we made it through most of the exhibits. Liam's favorite was definitely
"Lorikeet Landing," where he was able to feed the birds special juice in a little paper cup. Other favorites that he kept talking about were the polar bears, rhinos and elephants.
bald eagles in the Pacific Northwest exhibit:
Liam riding a lion (or some type of large cat):
sleepy zebra:
feeding the lorikeets (with a bandaid on his forehead):
I heard, "Liam go see rhinos; Liam go see polar bears; Liam go see elephants" so many times that when the second Tuesday of December rolled around, I knew that I had to take him again. That was the freakishly cold week when temperatures didn't get above freezing some days, but we toughed it out, bundled in coats, hat, mittens, leg warmers, etc. (According to the outdoor temperature gauge on the Subaru, it got up to a steamy 33 degrees Fahrenheit while we were there.)
Needless to say, only the hardcore $2 Tuesdayers were out that day. Only the membership services window was open and the woman who sold me our tickets warned me that the African animals were all hiding inside. We lasted two hours, but didn't get to see as many animals. The polar bears were hiding. Strange, but true. No rhinos. The Asian elephants have an indoor viewing area, but they were only offering a rear view, possibly in protest of the ridiculously cold temperature. In the PNW area, the duck pond was half-frozen. We did have a wonderful face-to-face with a cougar (
a real one,
not Courtney Cox).
Rowan during the last 30 minutes or so when he wasn't in the Ergo with his hands tucked in my armpits. His single mitten is not an homage to Michael Jackson, but rather an attempt to keep him mostly unfrozen while he enjoyed a snack. I kept switching the mittens so that the boys' hands wouldn't get too cold.
Liam munching and checking out the penguins:
I'm not sure why they were all lined up. According to the sign, lunch was still several hours away. Maybe they were waiting for the sauna.
Realizing that the $6 I paid for admission and parking now that Liam is three multiplied by 12 months would be $72 for the year, I've decided just to cough up the money in advance and buy a
zoo membership. Then we can go whenever the whim strikes us, which will likely be more often than once a month.
