Woodland Park Rose Garden and Zoo

Another attraction Mom had advertised to the Muffins was the zoo. Having practiced our zoo skills at two other zoos, the day finally came for visiting the Seattle zoo. First stop: the rose garden outside the zoo.

Next stop: the zoo itself. The zoo recently acquired some exotic swine, and there were hoof print paths painted on the sidewalk leading to them. It turned out to be a "half zoo" day for us (hopefully we can catch the other half someday), so we only ended up seeing one of the new additions, the Visayan warty pig:

We took plenty of time for elephant watching, though:

Here's an Asian elephant:

And here's an African elephant:

The tapir was napping, but Curtis thought it would be fun to pet it anyway:

We saw some orangutans having lunch:

The Muffins were not the only kids who wanted a turn with this statue:

Hey, elk, watch out for the wolves! Don't worry, the wolves can't really get to the elk (at least not easily), but what a natural-looking habitat setup, eh?

We saw some brown bears:

And some very lively otters:

We also saw an eagle:

And a wallaby:

There came a time, though, when the Muffins (particularly Curtis), were rather more interested in rock climbing than animal viewing, a sure sign that it was time to go home.

On the way back to the car, Mom finally got a chance to photograph some of the sweet peas that grow wild all around the Seattle area:

Now, if we can just find an excuse to go back to Seattle and see the other half of the zoo . . .