Oakland and the Zoo

In trying to get caught up on life and blogging my goal is to blog once a day. We'll see how that goes!

A couple weeks ago we had to tearfully take my parents to the Oakland Airport to fly back home after helping us move here to Modesto. We decided to take advantage of being in Oakland to see a bit of the ocean and use our new zoo pass! It is such a GREAT zoo! Seriously I thought the new renovations to the Hogle Zoo in Utah were good, but it doesn't even compare to the life these animals at the Oakland Zoo have! Lucky ducks (okay not literally we didn't see any ducks...well perhaps a few visitors.

Walking along a cold Oakland Pier looking over at San Francisco

Anna was still in her PJs and was so cold. Luckily we had our trusty blankie, this thing goes everywhere- mostly to have at nap time. Anna is our little "Linus."

Pretending to wave goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, though they didn't leave until later and didn't fly West.
My two favorite people....So Cute!
View of San Francisco... or so we think.
Driving to the Oakland Zoo we were in some sketchy areas. Makes for a cool school though.
Welcome to the zoo!
Anna loves see camels now because Grandma and Grandpa and Great- Grandma rode on them in Africa and brought home a little stuffed one for Anna. It has been her toy of choice many times! Also, I was so nauseated I sat down on the ground by these guys and a worker asked me if I was alright and needs a cart to drive me around. That would have been nice! I told her I was pregnant and nauseated, her reply was, "oh poor baby." I really hope she meant me!
El Tigre, they were HUGE! But not as big as the next animals

This Lion was fighting with another Lion on the other side of the gate. It was SO CRAZY to watch, they kept Growling and jumping up on the gate. It was fascinating to watch.

Another View. (We stood about 10 feet up and over a railing so we were right there!)

He soon settled and went up by the lioness, she was not very impressed.

Look at the size of those paws!

My favorite of course! So cute!

There were about 5 Elephants and they had the largest "cage" of all.

The Zoo has a little "children's garden" Anna enjoyed exploring the butterfly and other over sized bugs!

Dave and Anna visited the bats, it was meal time.

Try eating upside down... seems difficult to me!

Anna was being silly by this point and NOT into photos. This is how she attacked Dave. I love this photo because it shows Anna "tense face" which she'll do if she is squeezing hard. Sorry it was your nose Daddy!

Not too thrilled to be released, still making the "tense face" At least Dad was free!

There were quite a few monkeys but we were hot and tired (and nauseated) so we skimmed by them.

Anna was SO excited for the "ferris wheel" as she calls it

One of my new favorite pics!

Chug a chug a choo choo!

What a great day and introduction to our surrounding areas! We are excited to explore more of California!