Trip to Oregon in Photos: Part 2, The Zoo

On Sunday we went to the Oregon Zoo in Portland. As you can probably guess based on his animal obsession, J was in heaven.

Our navigator, J:
The river otters were super cool. They swam all over the place and kept doing flips up against the glass. The boys loved them. They were laughing out loud at their funny antics.

The beavers:
This was our first time seeing real beavers. I love the reflection of Oscar's huge smile in the glass.

The wolves:
They had a place where you could play animal sounds right next to the wolves. Oscar kept playing the wolf howling sound until a third wolf appeared and all three wolves started howling. It was really cool. Wish I had thought to make a movie of it.

The HUGE polar bear:
I've never seen a polar bear so close and didn't realize how big they are. As you can see in the picture, N was quite impressed with the bear's size too.

The elephants, Mama and 3 year-old Sam:
I just LOVE elephants!

The African wild dogs:
Wish I could have gotten a better picture. J said these were his favorite animal.

The caracal:
I thought Wendy, the caracal, was just beautiful. She was waiting for the dwarf mongooses to come wandering through in their tunnels so she could try to pounce on them.

What kind of wild animal is that?
J and Oscar enjoying a tunnel through the dwarf mongoose exhibit.

A rhino!:

A hippo!:
Another first for me.

N, Oscar and J:
J kept saying, "I'm the same size as a tiger!"

On the zoo train--Isla, Kristin, Chris and Oscar:

On the zoo train--N and J:

A leopard!:
What a beautiful animal. At this point, the children were exhausted and we were on our way out, but J and I couldn't resist a quick peak at the leopards. So glad we stopped to look.