Ah, the classics...

Cincinnati Zoo

Today's agenda included a visit to yet another zoo. We hit the Cincinnati zoo. The draw for this zoo was my wife's desire to see the new two-month-old Sumatran rhino. This little guy marked his entry into the world by breaking a record. Harapan's mom Emi became the first Sumatran rhino in history to produce three calves in captivity, breaking her very own record. One of the claims to fame of the Sumatran rhino is a very hairy body. It was quite a site to actually see the little guy running around all over the enclosure -- full of energy!

The rest of the zoo was very well laid out, again not a lot of extra walking. Thank goodness! This was another 90+ day with high humidity! A baby gorilla, a wonderful "wings of wonder" presentation, a pretty cool manatee, and a three-toed sloth that was less than a foot away from us made this yet another enjoyable zoo visit.

We listened to the trainers at the elephant exhibit for quite a while. It amazed my wife how non-chalant they were with the three female elephants that were in the pen with them. These ladies were well behaved and quite fun to see interact with the handlers. The male will be in his own little hide-away. Apparently he has a little too much testosterone to be around the other elephants (or humans)...

Oh, yeah. My daughter and 3 year old got to handle live snakes as well! My middle boy bowed out of that experience for some reason. He's all into bugs, and frogs, bodily functions/noises and other things boys, but not live snakes. Go figure!

Atlanta Zoo

After our week in NC, we headed to Atlanta to visit a friend of my wife. She has kids the same age as ours and the two of them have been Internet friends since they became pregnant with their first.

One hot spot in the Atlanta area is the Zoo Atlanta. Our family loves zoos. My wife's husband commented, "Well, that will take you a half-hour," when he heard about our outing. We spent six hours there!

The zoo is laid out well, with minimal, non-productive walking (where you don't get to see new animals along the way). Although most zoos in the US have pretty much the same collection of animals, each has their own claim to fame (read: "marketing plug"). Zoo Atlanta's happens to be a newborn panda cub. One of only four born in captivity in Zoos in the US if I recall correctly. The crowds are so great for this attraction, the zoo rations out tour slots like Disney World except for the last couple of hours of the day. They also have a Panda Cam that you can use to watch the wee one (though apparently only zoo hours -- poor marketing in my opinion).

Though the temperature was a rather hot 93 degrees and the humidity high as well, all in all, it was a very cool visit (especially after a trip to Hank's Ice Cream Parlor across the street).