July 23, 2013 What we did on the 3rd

When Sandy and Sam were here for vacation, Sam and I took Gabe and Willow to the zoo

First stop is always the giraffes.  I like that they have replaced the crackers with romaine lettuce as food to feed the giraffes.  We always get some, and early in the morning, the giraffes are always hungry.  You can really get up close with them, like they are right there by the railing.  They are funny creatures, and have long purple tongues.  And they don't mind being petted!
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After the giraffes, we went by the new lion pen, but there was only one lion out, getting used to the new enclosure.  We were going to go back on opening night, but had truck problems so we didn't.  I do have to get back there for that.

Right after the lions, we came to the new elephant enclosure.  There is also a black rhino exhibit there that is new.

They had this life sized statue of an elephant that the kids could get close too, in case you were wondering if this was a real elephant!

This is the real elephant, and they are on eye level and not behind bars.  So you can get good pictures of them, and no fences.  This is a new exhibit that I hadn't seen before.

Then we went on to the wolves (napping out of sight), the mountain lions (napping where you could see them close up), the otters (napping out of sight) and the grizzly bears (also napping pretty much out of sight)....

Gabe was not napping out of sight!

We had fun, and I am impressed all over again at how great the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is.  They get a lot of support, as shown by all the brick walks and stone walls that have a sponsor (donor) inscribed on them.

This has to be my favorite zoo, and I've been to the San Diego, Denver, and Phoenix zoos.  A close second would have to be the Desert Museum in Tucson, but I don't know if it is still the same.  It's been 30 years since I was there.