Baton Rouge Zoo

The last Friday before I had to head back to school Eli and I went to Baton Rouge for the day to go to the zoo there. I'd always heard that they had a really good zoo, so I wanted to see for myself. Other than it being INCREDIBLY HOT, we had such a good time. I think this has definitely been the summer for zoo trips for my little man and me. I mean, we've only been to four zoos this summer. Ha! They're so great for Eli though. He loves looking at the animals and loves being outside. It's a win-win situation for him! I've always loved zoos, so it's pretty great for me as well! In fact, this fall-when it isn't SCORCHING outside-we plan on taking Eli to the Tyler Zoo. It's the zoo I went to as a child, so it holds special memories for me. I can't wait!


We started our zoo day at the Ream of the Tiger exhibit. It was very neat to see the tigers up close. As I mentioned before, it was pretty hot, so the tigers were enjoying a blood popsicle. Eli didn't quite understand why they could have one and he couldn't.





After the tiger exhibit, we went to see the elephants. I love elephants! As luck would have it, we timed our arrival perfectly and were able to see the elephant show. Judy and Bosie, the two elephants, performed some tricks for their audience. It was neat to see these HUGE animals doing all those tricks.


Judy, the elephant, was up first and poor thing, she had arthritis and walked kind of funny. She was the oldest of the two, so she only performed a couple of tricks before she had to rest and let young Bosie handle the rest of the show. She was very supportive of her friend though :)


Bosie, the young elephant, was quite good at all her tricks. You'll have to watch the two videos at the to see the entire show. It was a wonderful experience for Eli and me!







One of my favorite parts of the day was when we got to stop for refreshments. Ahhh! We really needed those cold drinks. They tasted so good!


We visited all the animals of the safari.



Then Eli got to check out the animals at the petting zoo. He was quite taken with the goats. He kept going up to them and patting them.

This goat even let him sit next to him for a quick picture.


One of my favorite parts was getting to see the giraffes. Eli loved them, too. He walked up to the fence to talk to them and one of the giraffes moseyed by to say hi. He was SO CLOSE! He could easily have reached his neck down and licked Eli if he wanted to. After that I told Eli it was time to go and he proceeded to tell the giraffe, "Mone, raffe!' (Come on, giraffe!) Ha! I explained that the giraffe had to stay at the zoo because it was his home. Eli seemed satisfied with that explanation and told the giraffe bye.




We saw one more animals on our way out and that was the baby rhinoceros. She was hiding behind her mommy playing peek-a-boo but we were able to catch a quick glimpse of her.


We were all ready to leave the zoo when we heard the train whistle. When we got to the zoo that morning, the lady at the train station told us it wasn't working :( They fixed it while we were touring the zoo, so we made the train our last stop! Eli was so tired, but really wanted to ride the train.

Can you tell how hot it was?



We left the zoo and by the time we got to the traffic light at the end of the road, this is what I saw. O-U-T! He'd had a blast! I love our zoo days together!


My parents were in town visiting my brother, Joshua, and his new wife, Andrea, AND they were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. We called them when we left the zoo and met them at the mall to eat with them before we got back on the road. Eli was in a foul mood, totally not his fault though because he didn't get a good nap at all in the car. He slept the whole way to the mall and about 30 minutes afterward in his stroller, but was just cranky when he woke up....that is until Pop asked him whether he wanted to go for a ride on the carousel. He quickly said, "Uh-huh!"

The first time around he rode Mike, the tiger, to support our favorite college football team :)


Then he asked Pop if he could have "more" so they went for another ride on the bunny rabbit.


Pop switched with Grammy and Eli went for one final ride on a brown horse. Oh the joys of being spoiled rotten by the grandparents! What a fun, fun, fun day!