A "Hot Time" at the Jacksonville Zoo

Yes, Alison, Tyson, Preston, and I spent a "Hot Time" at the zoo--literally!  It was over a hundred on the heat index--so hot you could fry a soggy egg on the pavement--all the humidity, but we had a great time!  Two or three times the clouds let some of the humidity in the form of rain on our heads, and we loved it!  It cooled things off!  We looked pretty bad at the end of the day--but, oh well--we had fun!

The first order of the day was to ride the zoo train!

Of course, we had to see the Asian area where the Komoda dragons were.

Tyson stopped at one of the fountains to put his head under the water to cool off.

We ate in the Jaguar pavilion, but I kept telling the kids, they used to have huge fish in these waters.  Then one of the curators told us that one of the jaguars ate three of them which cost $2,000 apiece, so they had to move them. 

Not even the symbol for Jacksonville gets to eat meals that expensive!

It started to rain, and the capybara went for the water.

We could hardly see through all of the rain at this point, but we were inside one of the buildings looking through the window, so no big deal to us!

While we were inside the cool building, the kids loved seeing all of the snakes!

When the rain calmed down a bit, we went to the aviary where we probably had one of the funnest times of the day--

All of the birds were interesting to see, but the following little guy's determination was unbelievable . . .

We're talking about the little guy on the post with all the blue eye shadow on!

No sooner had we parked the stroller, than he jumped on it and was determined to get the apple juice and Sprite which were inside. 

Seriously, he poked and hit his beak so hard to try to break through, we thought he was going to break his beak instead!  Then he tried prying the lid off!  He just wasn't going to be denied Preston's drinks!

We watched and watched him for the longest time.  Finally, Tyson felt so sorry for him, he got him some animal crackers to try to distract him. 

When he took the cracker, another bird came along and tried to take it away from him--but he was a very determined little guy and he handled the situation just fine!  If only I knew more how to make videos with my camera!  It was a $10,000 moment watching him try to get into those cups!

Next we made our way over to the water park area. 

If only they would have let the adults in!

The icees were, also, a welcome relief to the heat!

The petting area was a hit, too!

Tyson shows Preston how to brush the little goats.

All the rain actually made the slide really slippery!

The first time Preston went down, he actually biffed it--but after that, he was ready!

Each time he would land on his feet, he'd say, "Ta, da!!!"  He was so proud!

After a big rain, we were sopping wet, as you can see by Tyson's clothes, but that didn't stop us at all!

Preston couldn't decide which animal he wanted, but when he saw the gator--that was it!

Now the boys got to go into the stingray tent and actually touch them.

There was a small shark which the curators said was okay to touch as long as he was on the bottom of the tank--but Tyson just couldn't get himself to touch it.  (I actually don't blame him!)

We had seen lots of great animals this day, but Tyson still hadn't seen the one animal he wanted to see the most.  (And, no, Cassie--it wasn't a tiger!)

He wanted to see a real gator--and we were about ready to go--so we headed on over so he wouldn't be disappointed!

Success--even though it was hot, he still got to see some on the banks or sticking their heads out of the plant-filled water. 

Tyson thought the day went way too fast.  He could have stayed for several more hours, but it was nearly closing time, and Alison and I were exhausted!

One more picture--and we headed home!