Sacramento Zoo

We went on a short trip to the Sacramento Zoo, the day after thanksgiving.

We had a blast. The weather was great and the kids were well behaved throughout the two hour ride from San Jose (~125 miles one way) as well as on the ride back!

This is a great zoo! Somehow all the animals seem to be happy and were interacting with the people, seem to be healthy, well maintained and comfortable. They had zoo staff, in little booths explaining things to the kids about the animals. They even have a animal hospital on display for visitors which was very informative.

The photos and videos say it all..

Bramhopadesam paramam pavithram... cut cut cut.. this was just playtime.. this pose by the two orangutans reminded me of an old Upanayanam (poonal) photo of me and my dad with a silk cloth over our head, during the "initiation ceremony"!

They were just adorable.

The kookaburra from Australia. My mom taught Jr. "Kookaburra sits on a sorgham tree..." and it is one of her favorites!

Some of the bird cages were a little cramped but the African gray parrots were still very happy!

The long necked ones, apparently have seven neck bones, same count as humans, except the bones are long! Most of these were 13 -11 years old. They also had some giraffe skin from one that passed away at the zoo at an old age of 24 (apparently in the wild they live to be 16-17 max).

Jr. put the demo lady on the spot by asking her who killed the animal, how did they get the skin out etc. Once the questions started getting very difficult, we pulled Jr. out!

They had this metal artwork and some picnic tables nearby which were very useful to do some show and tell while feeding the kids.

Spot the main difference in the two photos below. (one is a cropped version)!

The little one is sooo impatient.

She wanted to be the big Kangaroo!

We saw what appeared to be Master Shifu..

The South American ant eater, a big hit with the kids!

The Sumatran Tiger, captured to the best of my ability through glass, wire and bamboo..

The lion was way too far to be captured with an 80mm max zoom, but the Jaguar was up close!

The flamingo pond was amazing. It was like seeing them in the wild.

After the trip to the zoo, we went on to visit Fairy Tale Land and Funderland, two other attractions across the zoo. The kids really enjoyed the day.

Here is a video of the Zoo trip..

Strongly recommended for a one day outing from the bay area!

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