Welcome to the Jungle

Today we went to the Birmingham Zoo! It was so much fun! And hot, hot, hot!
I had not been to the zoo since high school and John since he was little so we really enjoyed it!
Word to the wise when going on a Saturday: BE THE FIRST ONES THERE! We arrived at 9am as it was opening and hardly anyone was there. However, we stayed a few hours and by the time we left it was packed!
The first area we went to had farm animals, goats, pigs, and CHICKENS! Heidi got right up to the coop and started babbling and all the sudden all the chickens came out. She got a kick out of that. They also had camel rides! John said he'd had his share of that and Heidi was too small still. Maybe I will go myself next time! Although they were quite "ripe" smelling in the heat so maybe I'll wait until it's much cooler:) Of course the elephant they had died of old age a while back, so we missed seeing that but there was still so much there. Did you know they have a gorilla they rescued that now has a pace maker? Neat.
Heidi really enjoyed the zoo so we will have to go again soon.
Here are some of the pics we took. I am also trying to post a video of Heidi chasing a "Sand Cat" that is so cute:)


Look Aunt Berta a gator just for you! hahahahahaha.....
They we doing educational showings early that morning and Heidi was all about it. We petted the alligator. And then I promptly wiped her down with hand sanitizer:) It has surprisingly soft skin. The lady next to us said that's why they make such good shoes, hahaha!

They also had an baby owl. It was sooooo cute. Notice John holding her arms down. She still managed to make a grab at it though. She missed though so its fine.

Checking out the Otters swimming. They're some of my favorite. They always look like they're having so much fun.

THIS TIGER WAS HUGE. It kept pacing back and forth on this ledge. I told John to set Heidi down so she could stand up and watch him. John said he would but she had too good a grip on him. Don't blame her, IT WAS HUGE. And it wasn't the biggest one. This was an Indochinese Tiger. They have a white Bengal, but he was sleeping.

This was over by the "savannah" area. You could feed the giraffes but there was a bit of a line so we were just watching and this one came right over to us! There was also zebras, ostriches, and some big horned somethings-or-others. Just remember: big animals make big poop.
One word: Aroma-Rama.