The WEJ: The Zoo

So, Allan and Will left on their "Man Trip" bright and early Thursday morning, June 21. They went to Babcock State Park in West Virginia. Allan will have to blog further on that subject, but here is a photo of the guys leaving our house.

After they left, Emma, Jack and I headed for the NC Zoo, which is in Asheboro. This was our first visit there, so we had no idea what to expect. Were we ever in for a treat! The drive was just under an hour on all country highways. It sure was a quiet ride without our Will! Once there, we had to make the decision of going to North America or Africa. We chose Africa as it was a smaller section of the zoo (a 3-mile walk) and we thought we would save North America for when Will could be with us.

The zoo was awesome! It was a paved walk that led us through Africa to see giraffes, elephants, monkeys, zebras and birds. Most of the walk was under shade trees, so it was a very comfortable day. We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed it immensely. Jack, who loves to run away from us, stayed close by and walked almost the entire day. I had to put him in the stroller just once because we became surrounded by a big school group and I didn't want to loose him. Otherwise, both kids were troupers and walked around all day long. When we left, it was several hours past Jack's nap time. He was asleep in his car seat before I was done packing the car up! I wanted to do some more exploring in Asheboro, but will have to save that for another day. I wanted no part of carrying a sleeping guy around!

My personal favorite was the savanna area of the zoo. There was an overlook where you could watch the elephants, antelopes and rhinos grazing around. It was just beautiful. Emma's favorite was the zebras and Jack preferred the monkeys - go figure! Here are some pictures of our visit.