We had breakfast in the camper again and had to pack up in the rain. And were on the road by 10. We arrived at the hotel and checked in. We were dismayed to find out that the hotel did not actually have laundry facilities. Which I was banking on when I packed. So we had to hand wash the essentials in the tub and hang them to dry through out the room. Hoping they would dry out enough to wear by tomorrow. And because we were camping ALL of our clothes were dirty and smelled like a campfire, which isn't a bad thing when you're camping but when you get back to civilization, it's not that great. So our room looking like a laundromat. I wonder what the maid thought when she came in to make the beds.
We headed to IKEA for lunch and shopping. We dropped the boys off in the play area and Nath and I got to shop with just Em for 45 minutes. It was really nice.
We ended the day with swimming at the hotel. Which was not in the new waterpark which opened shortly after we left. (great timing) But the kids still enjoyed it.
The next day we had breakfast in the hotel room. I had picked up some groceries the night before then headed to the Zoo. It was raining again. And so the $1.99 golf sized umbrella I picked up at IKEA which Nath scoffed at worked out quite well.
We spent four hours at the zoo and I think we could have easily spent four more. We had a great day and it was even raining. I asked each of the boys for their highlights. L said the Elephants and the Gorillas were his favorites and N loved the tigers, hippos, rays, mice (in the australian exibit, they were running all over inside the cages- apparently they come in with the straw and they can't really get rid of them. The baby gorillas like to catch them and "love" them to death.) and th Prehistoric Park. They had fabulous interpretitive programs at a bunch of different spots where we learned fun facts like Tilapia fish eat Hippo poop.
The giraffe and hippo enclosure
N holding part of a hippo tooth
L holding a giraffe vertebra. Did you know that a giraffe has the same number of vertebrae that we do, theirs are just that much longer.
One of the gorillas
He was lounging in a wheelbarrow, right in front of the glass.
The baby gorilla
So cute.
Em loved watching most of the animals but seemed to really enjoy the elephants.
L was really tired by the end
It was a lot of walking
The Prehistoric Park was beautiful and incredibly well done. If we hadn't been so pooped from alreay walking the whole zoo I think we would have spent more time here. N had to pose in front of each dino.
He was in dino-heaven!
And yes he does know the names of all of them too.
That night we got the kids to sleep then packed our bags and Nath loaded the van and even hitched up the trailer to van so we'd be ready to hit the road bright and early the next morning. We woke up at 6 and left the kids in their PJs hoping they'd just go back to sleep once we were driving, but unfortunately they did not.
covering the last bit of red paint
