Yesterday was a wonderfully warm day and it was my moms birthday. She wanted to go see the polar bears at the zoo so I figured for her birthday to go ahead and take her up.
Walking into the Zoo I see that they still have trams
After renewing my membership for the year we entered the park and decided to walk around Jungle Jacks Landing to test out my new camera.
The rides would open later in the day however right now the pathway was open and we were free to walk around.
Walking in the 1st thing you see is the Log flume
Looking around the station it looks like it wasn't ready for the season yet. I didn't see any logs in and the water was filthy.
Next up I walked by the flyers. I road these last year and they are snappable however I didn't ride them today
Walking around again was Journey to Zanzibar
As I walked around the area You can see the jungle trek car ride
Once again it didn't look ready to open. Funny enough they were running a 2 for 1 special today because I it looked like a lot of the rides weren't quite ready yet.
I decided to test my camera out some and took a picture of the large slide complex in the water park
Speaking of the water park the gate was open to the main entrance. I stuck my camera in and grabbed a quick shot.
Next we walked towards the kids area towards Sea Dragon
Next up was the frog hopper and Sea Dragon.
Sea Dragon spent most of last year in rehab. However this morning it looks like it was ready to go
We walked by a ready to go Gibbons
Then the scrambler
Then as we finished our circle we went by the safari cars
Walking back around they had birds on leashes!
Here is an owl being all like what..
Then there was this ferret looking thing
Then there was the sparrow...and some outlets
Then there is the Turkey Vulture
As we were walking back we saw the Flamingo parade
One of the shows the zoo does is the Cheetah & dog show
They tell the stories that the dogs are used to scare off the Cheetahs but these two have been raised together and they seem to get together well enough although the dog is a bit crazy.
The Cheetahs are still young and growing but this is a cat I wouldn't mess with
The keepers told me the cheetah kept eying the kids because it would be easy prey.
The dog on the other hand loved all the attention.
We then walked back to the North America part of the zoo to see the polar bears. As we were walking up we saw the Bison
Right at the railroad crossing is the solar house which is being built by OSU and the zoo
After waiting for the train to cross we were in to Polar Frontier
The area itself is very well themed out
Even the employee only area signs are well thought out
Next we walked into the "mine" down to the under water viewing area.
There is tons of fish in the water for the bear to eat. How ever today the bear wasn't fishing
from here you can walk up to the "living room". This area is setup with TV's showing the polar bears. A gift shop, and a really neat display showing the ice caps melting,.
Walking towards the outdoor viewing area we got to see the polar bear
I got to see the brown bear too
As we went towards the exit there is the Arctic fox
It was ultra crowded in the area so we made our way back down and out of the zoo.
It was a fun couple of hours and the new exhibit was very fun and informative.