Olive goes to the Zoo! part 1

We arrive at the Zoo!

We are eager to see the Easter Bunny, as we were told he is here somewhere, along with other Easter activities for the kiddies. Judging by the traffic, the packed parking lot, and the line for tickets, we are not the only ones on this quest today.

This is Olives first time to the Zoo, and we are curious if she will react with the same enthusiasm she shows for all of her animal books.

These were pretty cool to watch. (Though Olive seemed more interested in the pull string on my sweatshirt.)

So we continued our search for rabbits, and made our way toward a large crowd up ahead.

As we got closer, it turned out it was a Meerkat exhibit, and the anxious crowd was trying to get this guy to turn for a photo..

And while all the people were getting frustrated, I raised my camera, focus, and on queue Mr. Meerkat turned and gave me this 'over the shoulder' shot.

Everyone was freaking out yelling "get your camera!! he turned around Henry! Hurry!!" and as soon as it happened, it was over. A collective grown from the crowd as I some how walked away with this shot and a smile.

(It kinda felt like one of those Mentos commercials..)

Anyways, Thank you Mr. Meerkat. Im not sure why you did that, but that was pretty cool.

As the morning went on, the crowds and the sun came out, and we tore apart our bags looking for her sunhat. (Which we left in the car). Hence the new 'Junior Zookeeper' safari hat adorning O's noggin.

She looks pretty good eh?

One of the most iconic parts of the LA Zoo, the Flamigos. (or, correctly spelled 'the Flamingos').

This is where the opening of 'Threes Company" was filmed where Janet, Jack, and Chrissy bumble their way around the Zoo. The bad news: Chrissy was no longer standing there on one leg.

The good news: Olive was really intrigued by the flapping, gawking glowing birds. She was quite entranced by them.

It was funny watching her trip out on just what the heck she was watching. I think at one point she looked at her milk bottle and asked "what was in here?"

We kept ducking into tents and pavillions trying to find the rabbit exhibits, but no dice. One had a puppet show going on. And although the crowd was well into it, we found it kinda creepy, so we split..

As a parting gift, everyone got a box of peeps. Which I wasnt too excited about. But Rebecca acted like they were giving away $100 dollar bills. Ok.. Guess my wife has a thing for peeps.

(now I know what to get her for our anniversary!).

So Im taking these photos, and its pretty crowded with onlookers trying to get their own 'National Geographic' shots. And I turn around and this lady carrying a young girl walks by and the child drops a pair of sunglasses.

I picked em up and called out for the woman, tapped her shoulder, she turned. "umm, I believe you dropped these" I said. She looked at the glasses then gave me a huge radiant smile and said "Oh thank you so much!!" She took the glasses and returned to her husband who had kept walking.

And then I realized that was Halle Berry.

I turned to Rebecca with a confused look.. She said "Yeah, that was Halle Berry. And she's with her model boyfriend and he's HOT!" Anyways, it was yet another one of those weird 'only in LA' moments. But as starstruck as we were, Olive didnt seem to care. Imagine that.

Oddly enough, Halle turned up in this photo. She has her back turned towards us, and is in a red tshirt.

(And yea, she was beautiful.)

So we walked a bit further, in search of some food and I carried the Jr. Zoo Keeper for a bit.

So we scaled the mountain paths, scattered with little burroughs of cages where three or four Monkey/Eagles/Deer/Groundhogs called home. Oddly enough, the most active of all the tenants were these turtles.

Unfortunately Olive missed all the action.

And she wasnt the only one sleeping, as we crept up on some lions.

I made some joke about leaving her in the cage and she shot me a look.

Ok Olive, you can come home with us.

Part 2 coming soon!