Lions, Tigers, & Ben....Oh My!
The weather was forecasted to be partly sunny on Sunday, but I would beg to differ. While the rain stayed away, the dark clouds hindered for most of the day. However, the day still worked out to be a fun afternoon at the Brookfield Zoo with a slightly grumpy Ben! Who kept him up too late last night? Oh wait, that was us - silly Aunt Betsy & Uncle Russ! He was still able to have a fair share of fun checking out the animals, getting his face painted by Daddy, and sitting in as Zoo Director for the day!
Jim gave us some history of the zoo including that it has been around since the 1930’s. We really enjoyed the layout in that it felt more like a park than a zoo because of its wide promenades. Also the Brookfield Zoo did a great job of using moats rather than cages to see the animals in a more natural habitat.
While the seals gave us a good show of barking and playing, without a doubt the highlight of our trip were the lions. One of the zoo employees said it was extremely rare that both the lion and lioness were both awake at the same time, as they typically sleep 18 - 22 hours a day. Also, word on the street was that the lioness had devoured an entire giraffe that morning, leaving the lion with none! They were definitely keeping their distance from each other. We spent the majority of our time viewing the lions from a wide open view with only a moat separating us from them. However right as we were leaving the exhibit, we peered in a little glassed-in area with several other folks. After a minute or so, the lion got up and started pacing back and forth. Shortly after, he let out a BIG ROAR! You could feel it in your feet. Every time he let out a monstrous roar the entire glass would fog over with his steamy breath (no giraffe on that breath). One might say that he was mildly hangry. Russ likes to say he looked right into the eyes of the BEAST! I was only a pane of glass away from losing my hubby! It was incredibly awesome to seem him in his glory! He was definitely showing the crowds that had gathered who was king. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get many great photos of this part - but I don't think it will slip our mind for quite some time.
We spent about 3 hours enjoying the sites and sounds of the Brookfield Zoo with Jim & Ben before meeting my sister for dinner. We look forward to returning to the zoo in the future to check out some of the other exhibits we didn’t get a chance to see. Thanks Jim for sharing your zoo membership Christmas gift with us!
