ATL Zoo

After the Temple Open House and some lunch, Charlie and I were ready to zonk out. We had originally planned on going to the Atlanta Zoo that day but we were exhausted. Not to be discouraged by my incessant whining and protests, John made us go anyway and we had a good time. I was surprised Charlie behaved so well considering he got hardly any sleep the night before and only a 30 minute nap in the car.

John watching the silver back apes. He was seriously freaking out over these apes. He thought they were the coolest thing ever. That's how he was the entire time: like a little kid. He was practically skipping as he dragged me along.

Daddy and Charlie watching the monkeys. Charlie LOVES monkeys. That's the only thing he wanted to see.

Some hideous orangutans that reminded me of Paul Giamatti in that awful 2001 "Planet of the Apes" movie. My sis-in-law Mari says every time she sees Paul Giamatti she thinks of orangutans. Makes sense.

Now, this . . . this is my guy. I know this is weird but the reptile house is always my favorite part of the zoo. I know it's weird but I really like snakes and lizards. I would never own one as a pet because I think keeping animals in your house in general is gross (even though I grew up with inside dogs, cats and rabbits!) but I like reptiles a heck of a lot better than cats. Anyway, this guy was so huge! I thought it was so amazing. As you can tell from the look on his scaly face, the feeling was mutual. Seriously, if I started to walk away, he would watch me. I think we had a "moment." I was tempted to throw a saddle on that guy and ride him off into the sunset . . . that is, if I didn't think he'd take a bite out of my leg the first chance he got. Still, we'll always have the zoo . . . sigh.

My second favorite part of the zoo--pandas! So adorable.

Charlie watching the mama panda indoors with her new baby.

There's a little stamp machine around the panda area where you can get a panda stamp on your hand. Well, I took it a little far.

Yup, that is one hot panda tat on my foot. The people watching were cracking up but John was embarrassed (even though he gave himself a panda "Dark Mark" inside his forearm) so I stopped playing with the machine. If it hadn't been for that, I would've totally given myself a panda tramp stamp.

Amazing lion! Who does his hair?
Charlie the lion.

After the zoo, we asked Charlie what his favorite part was. He said his new truck (we got him a $4.50 souvenir truck). Wow. We could've saved $75 had we known that . . .