The Orange County Zoo

My Spring Break came and went, and on the day that Cass does not have daycare, we decided to go on a zoological adventure.

Specifically, an adventure to a zoo. We've been wanting to take our boy to the zoo, a zoo, any zoo for a while now, mostly because he does quite well with his animal words from the books we read to him. And he, er, reads to us.

So we looked at the realities of taking a not-quite-three-year-old to a zoo. Reality 1: He won't realistically remember. The great and fine details won't be so implanted in his memory as much as the feeling of being loved and having fun out and about with mom and dad.

Reality 2: If he won't remember, then the traveling and financial realities can and, rather, should, factor into the decision making process.

The best zoo "around:" obviously, the San Diego Zoo/African Safari/Marine Park location. That will be an awesome adventure, when he's older and the 90 minute drive can be spent productively. (Um, sure, daddy...sure.)

The next best zoo around is the LA Zoo, and coming in third is the Orange County Zoo. The LA zoo is in Griffith Park, near the Observatory and close to Dodger Stadium. While barely thirty miles away, it's nearly an hour and a half in real time. Tickets are nearly thirty bucks a person, but discounted for our toddler.

The OC zoo is in Irvine, in the John Irvine Park. While barely thirty miles away, it's about a half hour away in real time. Tickets are two bucks a person, and toddlers are free.

One caveat: the only African animal they had was a serval, and it lost a foot at some point in the past. The serval and the ocelot were the most exotic animals. They had two bears, but one had had an accident when it was a cub and had nearly had its head caved in. 'It may act strange' the plaque said.

They had two pumas, one forlornly walked the perimeter like a bored dog. They had some neat birds of prey, both golden and bald eagles, perched on branches with annoyed looks in their eyes, sitting nearly as tall as my son.

Me and zoos...

Here are some pictures:

Cassius is calling after the mountain lion, "Meow! MEOW! Where you going, Meow?" That's what he calls cats, meows.

An ocelot, lamenting the lack of Mexican jungles in his cell pen.

The pens were laid out snugly like someone would in a back area of a ranch, which is pretty much what this place is.

A golden eagle above, the picture not doing justice to the true size and presence of the majestic creature. In an odd moment, all of the big birds of prey had their right wing out, as if to say, "Yo. 'Sup."

Golden eagles are...brown.

They had charts and face-hole photo-op boards:

No, do THIS with your arms...do THIS...

They had a playground and even a train. The train was excitement incarnate...for Cass. 

There will be a time for more thorough and exotic experiences with other wild animals, captive or not.

One last shot of the puma: