A zoo or China

A few weeks ago when I picked John up from school, he asked me "Can we go to a zoo? Or China?" It turns out that he was working on a panda puzzle and wanted to see pandas in their natural habitat. This week is John's spring break. I decided I would surprise him and take him to a zoo. I gave him a few clues, but he wasn't able to guess. 

This morning we got in the car and before we hit the parkway, he said "The zoo! We're going to the zoo!" He was right. We were headed to the Cape May Zoo. We arrived before the gates opened. John played on the huge playground while we waited for the zoo to open. Then we headed inside. John led the way. He is really good at reading maps!

We walked around and saw a cow, an owl, some goats and peacocks. Then I pointed out two bald eagles. John said "They are like the most important animals here." I asked "Why?" He said "Because they represent our country!" 

We walked through the bird house. Two steps inside the door, John said (very loudly) "It stinks in here!" I shhhed him and we walked through and checked out all the various species. He even remembered, "Flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp!"

We saw a camel, some llama (Gillian would have loved them), bison, a lion, a capybara, and a bunch of turtles. The turtles were all sunning themselves on the rocks on the edge of their pond. John told me "I can't wait to tell Travis about all the turtles! They must be friends."

 

Next we saw some snow leopards, giraffes, an ostrich and zebra. We also saw a red panda. Now this wasn't the kind of panda John had hoped to see, but he was still very excited. 

We walked through the reptile house. John pointed out every snake, lizard and turtle to me. He loved seeing all the turtles. We checked out the sea otters and a few more animals. Then we took a little break and John went on the carousel and we both road the train. 

We visited the gift shop. John picked out a stuffed snow leopard for himself and a stuffed sea otter for Gillian. We had a little lunch. After lunch I asked John, "Do you want to go back and see any of the animals again or do you want to go home?" "Well, I want to take my new friends to see their relatives." Basically he wanted to take the snow leopard and the sea otter back to their exhibits. You can't say no to that so we headed back. 

On our way back through the zoo, John said "I can't believe no animals are following me!" I asked "What are you talking about?" He said "Well I'm a boy that likes nature. And I thought that animals would know that and would follow me around the zoo. Cause they would know that I am nice to animals and nature." I love his big heart. 

I had a great day wth my boy. I can't wait to do it again!