It's a zoo in here - America the beautiful

After our walk through the Jurassic Forest, we backtracked to the African Pavillion to visit the baboons.  There were quite a few baboons in the exhibit, but most of them were hanging out alone rather than playing together (maybe they are all toddlers).  We were able to see them pretty good from the outside viewing area but in exchange for the good view, we had to get rained on.

The group finally decided to be friends.

After looking at the baboons, we traipsed over to Junction Plaza for some lunch.  Lunch was pretty good.  They had quite a selection and the prices weren't as outrageous as amusement park prices (except on sodas).  Everyone had a good lunch.  After potty breaks, we caught the tram to North America.  (We were tired of walking and wanted a short cut to next continent.)

Our first stop in North America was Cypress Swamp.  Matthew likes alligators, so he was quite happy to see some in person.  The alligators were mostly laying around not doing much.  The ones up on the bank were easy for Matthew to see.  However the ones floating in the water were harder for him to make out.  He wanted to make sure that Brian wasn't going to feed him to the gators.

Next up down the gator loop trail was the cougars.  We got to the cougar viewing area just in time.  I was able to snap one photo before the closest cougar moved into the shelter of his hollowed out tree stump house.  I can't say that I blame him.  Rainy days are good for catnaps.  They were beautiful.  They have this aloof look about them that all cats seem to have genetically ingrained in them.

We then walked through a gazebo type building with views of the swamp on all but one side.  Matthew tried to catch a glimpse of the large alligator through the observation window.  But we were told that he submerged himself about ten minutes before we got there.  And that is where he stayed.

Matthew and Liza quickly made friends with a turtle.  They were quite content to watch him swim around.

Then we were off to see some animals I was quite excited to see given my marine biology background - harbor seals in the Rocky Coast exhibit.  You can watch the seals from a balcony overlooking the cold pool.

But the coolest view is in a cave-like area where you can get eye-to-eye with these graceful swimmers.  The kids were all enamored with these creatures.  They stood with their faces and hands pressed against the cold glass watching these seals show off.  The seals were well aware of their audience, zipping out of the underwater rock tunnels and turning flips right next to the observation window.

Next down the icy path was the puffins and other arctic birds.  It was very hard to get good pictures due to all the water and condensation on the glass.  But we did watch these cute little birds for a short while.

We walked a little further down the trail.  There was a huge area with nothing to see due to the polar bear exhibit being closed for renovations.  But we needed another potty break.  The kids played for a few minutes in the playground.  (No photos of that due to the heavier rain shower that started during our walk over.)  At this point it was getting later in the day and we still had quite a drive ahead of us, so we realized we were going to have to cut our adventure short.  We were going to have to skip the grizzly bear, the black bear, the bison, the otters, the elk , the bobcats, and the red wolves.  The rain was coming down a little steadier by this point.  We walked back to the tram station and waited to catch a ride back to the middle of the zoo. 

Dillon wanted to walk through the Sonora Desert.  So we decided to see what was in there.  There wasn't a lot to see really.  Most of the animals were in habitats that were built into the sides of rock walls.  They were too high up for Matthew to see and the animals were not very active.  And lets face it after you have seen elephants and rhinos and zebras and lions and chimps and seals and gators, the snakes, lizards and tortoises just aren't that impressive.

We did see an ocelot, which was cool.  Of course he was settling in to take a catnap, which meant he wasn't that entertaining to watch.

Next we entered the nocturnal cavern.  We caught a glimpse of vampire bats, but had just missed feeding time by about 15 minutes.  The coati (pronounced "kee wah tee") was cool.  He was hard to get a good picture of due to the low light.  From what I could see, he had the coloring of a skunk.

The last critter we saw was the ringtail cacomisle.

After leaving the desert we decided to take in the 4D dinosaur movie.  The five minute movie was action packed.  I worried that it would scare Matthew, but he really enjoyed it.  In that pitch black theater, he sat in his own seat with his 3D glasses practically falling off his face.  He only grabbed my hand once the whole time - when the T-Rex roared and peered down at us from the roof of our vehicle.  The biggest horror was once the movie ended and the roar of the special effects died down, we could hear the rain pounding down on the little, tin building we were in.  We made a run for the shelter and quickly walked to the tram station.

As we waited in a long line for the tram to carry us back to Africa (and the entrance where we parked) Matthew began to show signs of being cranky.  Honestly I was surprised he didn't get ill earlier due to the fact that he missed out on his nap.  After the long wait, where I had to keep hearing Brian say that if we had walked, then we would already be at the van by now, we finally piled into the tram and rode to the station at the gates to Africa.  We then made a beeline for the gift shop.  At this point the rain was a steady drizzle.  We did a couple of circuits around the gift shop trying to let Matthew choose something to commemorate his trip to zoo with.  He finally settled on an overpriced stuffed dinosaur.  After we made our purchase we realized that a monsoon was falling outside.  We quickly said goodbye to Leslie and her brood.  We ran outside in ankle deep water that was fast flowing.  The umbrella offered little protection from the torrential downpour.  By the time we had run to the parking lot, we had to cross a small river with small whitecaps as water flowed downhill from the parking lot.  We were drenched to the point that we could wring the water from our clothes by the time we got in the van.  At this point we discovered that heat wasn't working in the van.  So we settled in for a long, cold ride home.  Thankfully Matthew stayed relatively dry in his stroller.  All in all we enjoyed our adventure at the NC Zoo in Asheboro.