Los Angeles Zoo

Now that we are in our final days of our time in Los Angeles, I am trying to make sure we cover the sites that the kids will enjoy the most. For future reference, here is a list of things we won't have time to do:
Getty Museum and Villa--I read that they have new children's activities, so I wanted to go back.
Will Rogers Park to see the weekend polo games
Manhattan Beach Roundhouse, though we have spent a lot of time at aquariums
Orange County Great Park Balloon (free balloon ride sounds awesome).
Franklin Canyon and other nature centers and parks
Cerritos Library

The kids are super-eager to help pack their stuff, which they are haphazardly stuffing into their backpacks. Benjamin can't wait to put his toys to into his new Speedracer backpack.

After driving to San Diego and to Orange County for several museums and other activities, I want to stay relatively local this week and reduce the time spent sitting in the car. Perhaps we will get another chance next summer to see some of the fun things in Orange County that we've missed.

Today we picked the LA Zoo since it is so close, and Laura and I still haven't seen some of it. I wanted to make sure we got to the northwest section, which I hadn't seen, but Benjamin and Joshua saw during zoo camp. Since the zoo is so spread out and requires lots of walking for little legs, I made sure to bring plenty of food and water so that we could take a bunch of rest breaks.

Before we even left the house, one of Joshua's goals for our visit to Los Angeles came true--he caught a lizard! All summer Joshua has been thinking about elaborate traps to help him catch a lizard, but this time, he didn't need one. It was a small lizard that happened to find itself on our patio. After looking at it for a bit, Joshua released it into the yard.

On the way to the zoo, Benjamin gave Laura a spelling lesson ("say C-A-T"). At the zoo, one of the first animals we saw was the rock hyrax. Joshua saw the four babies during his week at camp, and he was eager to see how they are doing. Though he saw most of these animals at zoo camp, Benjamin was happy that we ended up seeing lots of monkeys. He was especially excited by the chimps and described in great detail how they pooped while he was visiting them during camp. The orangutans (difficult to find because not all the animals are labeled on the map) were also fun to watch. The kids were disappointed that the goat petting area was closed, but perhaps by our next visit to LA, the petting area and the new elephant exhibit will be open.

Benjamin is such a voracious reader these days that he finished all the books we borrowed from the library on Monday and we had to stop and get him a new collection on our way home.