Zoo Fun!

Sorry, I don't have any pictures yet...we took off this morning and left our camera behind. But don't worry pictures are on the way from another camera. We met up with our friends Chris, Amy and their son, Ian at the zoo. Amy works there as a Zoo Keeper and she offered us a behind the scenes peak at some of the animals. It was incredible! First, she took us to see the Orangutans, we were literally about a foot away from their door. Amy fed them some apple juice while we sat there in awe. Inji, who blew raspberries at us when she wanted more juice, is one of the zoo's original residents and is 47 years old. Her grandson, Kutai, is also in the exhibit and is a strapping young 14 year old with the cutest cheeks! Oliver took the cue from Inji and blew raspberries right back at her. She then took us above the primate exhibits to see Judy the Agouti. Along the way to Judy, we peaked in on some Ocelots and a howler monkey or two, again so incredible to see them up close, or at least closer than you can from the normal visitors vantage point. Anyway, Judy is a large rodent! Amy fed her some pieces of plum and we all got to take turns petting her. We took break for lunch then headed over to the giraffes. I know that they are tall animals but I guess I never really knew how tall until we fed Akeem some carrots. He took them right out of our hands through a chain link fence and if you held on tight enough he would wrap that big ol' tongue of his around the carrot and pull it right out of your hands. The kids had a great time and if you can't tell, I was just as excited if not more than the kids were. I hid it from the adults well but won't pass up the next invitation to see more. I will post pictures of our incredible day when Chris gets me the disk. You can get information on all of the animals by going to www.oregonzoo.org they have a section called "About Our Zoo" and in that section they have animal fact sheets.