Oregon Zoo

When we were in Portland last week, Auntie Meg (or, as Cole says, "AN' MAE!") took us to the Oregon Zoo!  None of us had ever been, so it was an awesome first time experience for us all.

Normally I'm not a fan of zoos - poor little animals in cages instead of in the wild; loud obnoxious people yelling and banging on the glass - but I was so pleasantly surprised at the Oregon Zoo.  There was a theme of conservation and respect for the animals at every turn; the zoo was well designed and very clean; and the animals that were ones that would not be able to survive in the wild.

Needless to say, Cole LOVED LOVED LOVED the zoo.  He just sat in his stroller, wide-eyed, taking it all in!

 The black bears - or, as Cole says, "BEWR!"

 "WOW!"

 The polar bear won for best show of the day, hands down.  He was HYSTERICAL!  He took this barrel thing, rolled it up onto his rock, and started bouncing on it!  Cole was thrilled and is STILL talking about it!

 Taking a Sno-Cone break:

 Elephants!

 "YION!"

 All day, Cole was most excited to see the TIGERS ("RAWR!").  Tigers are still his favorite animal - so we were a wee bit disappointed to only catch a teeny glimpse of them at the very end of our day.  It was so hot they were hiding in the shade.  But even so, Cole was super excited to even catch a teeny look:

Hooray for the zoo!