Winter Road Trip, part 2

During the winter the Cincinnati Zoo has special programs on the weekends that feature their cold-weather animals.  One weekend back in February, we decided to check it out.  This is probably our favorite zoo, so any excuse to visit is a good one.  As it turns out, February is a fantastic time to visit the zoo.  Very, very few people were there, so we had great views of all the exhibits, and the animals were very active due to the cooler temperatures. 

We got some great close up views of:

Mr. Peacock,

the world's fastest land animal,

and some sweet manatees.

Matt practiced his strange ability to control all things reptilian, got his wingspan measured in the aviary and found a great spot to have his picture made:

The best parts of the day involved the special programs.  We got to watch a zookeeper feed the snow monkeys, which involved standing on the other side of the moat that surrounds the snow monkey island and tossing fruit to the monkeys.  The monkeys apparently really love fruit, because as soon as the keeper started tossing it over, a snow monkey riot erupted as they fought each other for strawberries and orange slices.

Snow monkey calm before the storm

I will kill you if you touch my fruit

 Even cooler was the penguin parade.  The penguin keepers line up several of the larger birds and parade them down the main walkway in the zoo, so you can see them up close and personal.  The penguins either loved this or hated it, I couldn't really tell - they were throwing their heads back and trumpeting either in glee or frustration.  Either way, they marched obediently down the sidewalk, allowing us a great view.  Matt loved it.

Penguin parade = pure awesome.

Besides the zoo, we also hit Ikea and the Lego Store, also known as "shopping Nirvana" for myself and Matt, respectively.  The Lego store was amazing.  So amazing, in fact, that Matt quickly became overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available to him and started to get upset.  We took a break, regrouped, and tried again, with better results.  He spent all of his Christmas money there, and has been thinking of ways to get Grandma and Grandpa up there since he left. 

I'm sure we'll visit Cincy several more times this summer, for ballgames and King's Island, and possibly another zoo trip.  And of course - Ikea and Lego!