To the Toledo Zoo!

 Hi all!  Yesterday afternoon, we - oh, wait a minute.  I need to update you all first.

 Last Wednesday, we flew to Michigan!  Our cousins, the Brooks, came in on Thursday.  It's kind of cozy in our grandparents house with all of us here, but it's fun staying with our cousins.

We are here because of my parent's work, and since my sisters and I are all home-schooled, we got to come along.  Our grandparents live pretty close to the Michigan/Ohio border, so this afternoon they drove Elizabeth, Georgia, McKenna, and I down to the Toledo Zoo! (Kit and Victoria didn't want to.)  Our first stop was "Arctic Encounter".

"I'm afraid these polar bears are not very polite." Elizabeth commented.

"What? Why?" I asked, confused.

She smiled.

 "Because that one is sticking it's tongue out at you." she replied, gesturing to the bear.

McKenna, Georgia and I both giggled.

"Silly bear."

 After that, we walked over to the gray wolf area.

"Are these really gray wolves?" I asked, peering at them.  "They really look more white."

"They do have some gray on them." Georgia commented.

"Perhaps it is the lighting." Elizabeth offered.

"Or maybe it's a disguise!" McKenna suggested with a laugh.

After watching the wild wolves wander, we moved on to "Africa!".

It was kind of funny seeing the fall leaves and colors mixed with the zebras and wildebeests, among other animals.

"Look!" Elizabeth pointed to the far corner. "Giraffes!"

"O-o" Georgia and I said in unison.

"There's like, five of them!" Georgia said excitedly.

"Wow." McKenna added.

From there, you had to walk over a bridge to get to the other half of the zoo.

So, we started heading in that direction, ...

... and enjoying the fall colors (which could not be seen in Florida, that's for sure!).

From there, we wandered over to the Reptile House.

It's one of three remaining buildings from the zoo was first built, and I think it looks like something out of a movie. Do you think so?

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from our visit, besides the otters.  The way this green snake hung was so strange!  They also had this huge gator (it was like, 16 feet long or something!).  But it stayed under the water, so unfortunately we couldn't take a good picture.

We exited the hot Reptile House, and walked over to the otter/hippopotamus area.

"Come over here!" Georgia called. "These otters are adorable!"

"Oh, they are so cute!" I smiled.

"If you put your hand right by the glass," Elizabeth said, "they will swim right up by it."

Just then, McKenna's cell phone rang. "Excuse me."

I could only here traces of the conversation (I wan't snooping, honest), but what I did hear was very interesting.

"... yes, we were just looking at the otters, - no, I will not get you one as a pet!  They belong to the zoo... I have not ridden any hippos and do not plan on it ... I know you would ..."

After we had oh-ed and ah-ed over the otters, our grandparents called us over to the hippo.

"Girls, it just yawned!" Grandma said. "It has some large teeth."

"Chomp, chomp, chomp!" said our grandpa, make us laugh.  At this point the hippo turned it's back on us, and my sisters and I agreed that it was not a nice picture.  He-he.  McKenna hung up, and walked over to us, looking thoroughly shocked.

"Even though she's my sister, she always is surprising me."

From there, we moved on to the elephant trail.

One of the elephants, a semi-baby, was very playful.  He (or she, I don't know which) was fun to watch.  As we were heading to another section, the zoo made an announcement on the loudspeaker.

"The Toledo Zoo is closing in 30 minutes. I repeat: the zoo is closing in 30 minutes.  Please make your way to the exit gates."

So, we turned around and walked towards the bridge.

"Georgia, please stop flipping your hair in my face!" I said, brushing her dark curls out of my face.

"It's not me - it's the wind!" Georgia told me. "There isn't much I can do about it."

"This was very fun, Grandma and Grandpa.  Thank you!" Elizabeth said.

"Yea, thank you!" I echoed.

"Thanks!" Georgia added.

"Thank you!" McKenna said.

"You are welcome, girls." Grandma said, giving all of us hugs.

"We're so glad you are here with us." Grandpa said.

I had such a fun time with my sisters, cousin and grandparents!

Have you ever visited a zoo?

October 20th update: McKenna did a post about her trip with us!  Here's the url: http://thebrooksadventuresdollblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/to-zoo.html