Oakland Zoo

The first week of June we finally found a day to take a trip to the zoo.  Ally has been asking to go to the zoo for months, she doesn't remember her trip to the San Francisco Zoo.  We finally made it happen, it was a beautiful day and my parents joined us for a fun day at the Oakland Zoo.

It was a fun zoo, not too big we were able to see most of the exhibits.  We did hit on a day with quite a few school groups, once they left in the afternoon it was much quieter.

I was trying to get Allyson to pose for a picture in front of the giraffes but she kept plugging her nose, they were a bit stinky.

Next up was the elephant exhibit, I was excited to see this because the SF Zoo didn't have any elephants.

We made it right at feeding time, so we got to watch this elephant snack on some leaves and branches.  I was a little surprised how excited Eva got with all the animals.  I knew Ally would get excited but it was fun to see how much Eva liked seeing everything too.

Allyson the tortoise, they had some HUGE tortoises.  It was so fun to watch them, they are truly so slow they look very prehistoric.

This may have been Allyson's favorite part of the zoo, jumping around on these "lilly pads".  She spent a long time going from one side to the other.  She was lucky that she never fell in, we watched a few other kids fall into the water.  

Before we left Ally wanted to go on the Sky Train, Papa was the lucky winner to ride with her. 

We didn't make it to the ride area of the zoo until later in the afternoon but we made it on a few rides.  I was sad we missed out on riding the carousel but Ally loved "driving" her car.

We made it onto the last train ride of the day taking us through the Outback section of the zoo.  It was a fun ride, but shorter than I expected.  We did see lots of Walleroos and some of the Emus.

Eva looking adorable waiting for the train ride to start.  Eva was so good in her stroller, I thought she might get tired of being in the stroller for so long.  I think she loved watching all the animals and the people, she is a social girl!

By the time we left the zoo it was commute time, instead of fighting the traffic home we took a detour and stopped at the Oakland Temple.  This was Allyson's first time at the Oakland Temple.  We explored the visitors center, got to watch a great video presentation on families and enjoyed the grounds. 

It was a nice break from the crazy traffic and the weather was beautiful.