"Sink" Louis - Day 2: The Rest

After lunch we went to the monkey house.  It was a really neat old building that I think was from the 1904 World's Fair as well.

There was a green house-like area in the center of the building.  It was really cool.

William enjoyed watching the monkeys.

Bethany wanted to go back to that "monkey eating the salad".

 

Next we went to the reptile house.  William was having a great time because we let him get out of his stroller.

Hmmm. What's in here?

William really liked this snake.

Bethany did not share the same opinion.

Then the snake fell down the glass towards Bethany and she was out of there!  Good thing Aunt Amanda was close.

We had moment where we couldn't find Bethany.  I thought she was with Amanda and she thought Bethany was with me.  We just went back around the last corner and found her.  It shaved a few moments off my life, though.

William and Grammy had some fun with sunglasses.

"Here I am Grammy!"

Next up were the rhinos and hippos.  However, it proved to be a little tricky to get there.  The zoo was doing some major construction on a new sea lion exhibit.  So the route we were going to take was blocked off.  Since we couldn't go that way, it seemed like a good time to ride the train.  We had to backtrack a little, but there was a train waiting at the station, so we quickly folded up the strollers and hopped on board.  The train normally costs $5, but that was included in the Safari Pass as well.  This Safari Pass was really working out for us.

It was a really fun ride on the train, and the conductor told us a lot of interesting facts about the zoo.  Did you know that the St. Louis zoo has more visitors per year than any other zoo in the US? We were very surprised by that fact.

I couldn't turn around to take pics so I just pointed the camera back there and blindly pushed the button.  I ended up getting one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.

It was nice to a break from walking, and all too quickly we pulled into our stop.  Next visit I must ride the train all the way around the zoo.

We found the rhino and this guy was HUGE.  There's no way for a picture to do him justice.  He seemed kind of agitated and was pacing back and forth.

The hippos had a really neat exhibit where you can watch them swim underwater.  It was such a different side to big old hippos. Shane said that he always wondered why they portrayed hippos as ballerinas in the cartoons.  But when you watch them swim, they really are graceful.

How would you like to brush those chompers?

The cheetahs were up next.

So what's William do while we're all looking at the cheetahs?  Try to stick Daddy's sunglasses up his nose.  Boys.

Bethany found some neat things to look at.

And William found a rock.

Then he found a blade of grass.  Hmmm, what should I do with this?

How about try to stick it up my nose!  Boys.

The elephants were next.

The very cute baby elephant.

Then we posed for a family pic.

I know you were wondering what kind of crazy animals those were. ;-)

We were all starting to get tired and the zoo was noticeably more crowded than when we arrived.  So we decided to skip the children's petting zoo.  Bethany and William can visit Uncle Jeremy's petting zoo sometime.

We wanted to take a quick look through the insect and butterfly house, mainly to see the butterflies.

But we got distracted by some cool leaf cutter ants.

There weren't many butterflies out, but they did have some pretty flowers in there.

We managed to spot one or two butterflies.  The zoo keeper said they are much more active in the morning.

Another pretty flower.  I thought it was really unique.  Plus, I like taking pictures with my new camera. :-)

We made our way back for one more ride on the carrousel. 

Then we decided to call it a day.  We left the zoo, and tried our luck with our GPS.  I think she managed to get us back to the hotel with no problems.

We relaxed for a little while at the hotel, then Amanda, Dad and I left to pick up supper from a BBQ place.  We took the food back to Grammy and Papa's room and dug in.  It was really good.  After supper, it was time to get down to business.  Today was Papa's birthday, and Bethany had to help with the candles.

Happy Birthday to you . . .

Papa needed help with the candles, and Bethany jumped right in.  There really were quite a few candles.  It took both of them several tries.

We hung out in there for a little while longer.  I took William back to put him down for bed, and Bethany got her hair done by Aunt Amanda.

 

Before too long, the rest of them came back to room and Bethany went to bed.  Mom, Shane, Amanda, and I debated over what to watch on TV, but finally settled on a few different shows.  After a fun, busy day we were ready for a good night's sleep.  If only we would have gotten one.

Tune in next time to find out what happened.