Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Birmingham Zoo

We went to Alabama to visit Heather's mom and step-dad. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera out of my bag until almost the end of the trip. Heather and I were a little concerned about how Hudson would handle the 10 hour drive (9 hours if you don't drive the speed limit). It turns out that Dramamine works great; he went to sleep and we successfully drove all the way to Alabama arriving at 2am.

Initially, Hudson was not interested in anyone but Heather or I holding him and would cry if Me-ma or Pa-pa tried to hold him. Halfway through the trip, he decided that it wasn't so bad after all. He got a dog toy as a present when we first got there. It would play a song, rather loudly, when you press a red button on its leash. Hudson loved it figured out how to use the button within 30 seconds of getting the gift.
The Birmingham zoo had an animatronic dinosaur exhibit when we went. Sara Beth liked the herbivores better than the carnivores, though she enjoyed watching the Dilophosaurus squirt people with water when they walked by. Her favorite was definitely the four baby Triceratops as they were only about a foot long and making cute squeaking noises.
The zoo also had a meri-go-round which we were able to ride on a couple of times. I tried to convince Sara Beth to race me, but she wasn't interested. I think the seats were a little on the high side for her; she held to the pole very tightly as we spun around the first time, but she did want to go on it a second time.
Hudson wasn't all that sure about the experience, even with an adult right next to him the whole time.
Hudson has a fascination with all motor vehicles. Sara Beth was in the petting zoo getting up close with the goats and sheep, Hudson noticed a nearby tractor statue and made it clear that he wanted to get on it. In addition, he has now added "tractor" to his list of vocabulary words and pointed out all the tractor stores he saw on the drive home to Dallas.
We got to the elephant paddock just at feeding time. Sara Beth stood up front and watched with fascination for 20 minutes while the pachyderm munched on a table full of food. Heather, Hudson, Me-maw and Pa-pa headed on to the monkey building after 10 minutes, so Sara Beth and I had to catch up after the elephant cleared the table of food.
And here is the one, non-zoo related travel picture. We went by the toy store the next day and Sara Beth found a ice cream shop LEGO set that lights up. Pa-pa and Sara Beth worked hard to get it all setup before dinner, so she would have time to play with it after dinner since we were leaving the next morning. We had a great time, and would have loved to stay longer if it wasn't for my limited vacation time at work.

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