Granby Zoo

Yesterday Heather had her end of the year field trip. Three classes traveled in a bus, over the border, into Canada, to Granby Zoo.

Heather in the middle with her two best friends, Kelby on the left and Anya on the right.

Almost every child had a parent along, so we didn't need to stay with the whole school group. It must have been "school group day" because when our bus pulled into the parking lot, we saw at least 20 other buses parked side by side. It was great that we had so many parent chaperons. I could see these other groups struggling to keep their kids together, wearing colored pinnies, making kids hold hands and walk in a line. Very difficult for them, I imagine.

Plenty of photo ops throughout the zoo. 

Granby Zoo is immense. In the 6 hours that we were there, I would say we explored roughly 1/3rd of the place. I bet you would need to spend a weekend there to see the whole thing without being rushed. 

We spent a lot of time in the area of the zoo dedicated to Africa.

Heather, Anya, and Kelby on an African tour bus.

 The lions were not very exciting.

Meerkats  are very funny.

We loved the color of these flamingos.

This fella was a big hit, although I felt kind of sorry for him. He seems so human-like and seemed to know that he was on display. He seemed to move from one spot to another in search of some privacy, but of course his habitat is set up so that we can see him wherever he goes.

Or perhaps "he" is a "her." I don't now.

Heather with classmates Harper, Trent, and Kelby.

A tortoise.

The giraffes were beautiful and graceful.

After spending a couple of hours in Africa, we met up with our group for lunch, exchanged stories, made plans, and started out again.

Heather and Kelby took a ride on a camel.

We went into the aquarium and were hypnotized by these jelly fish.

There was a tank with sharks and rays. This is a guitar ray.

This was fun. This pool is filled with rays constantly swimming around, like doing laps around and around. You can reach your hand right in and touch them. They seem so enjoy it. If you see one coming your way, you can dangle your hand in and they'll swim right over under your hand. They feel smooth and rubbery.

Heather learned to surf while we were there.

Heather desperately wanted to reserve some time to visit the water park. The water park itself is the size of 6 football fields. Heather spent all of her time in the wave pool.

It was a fun and exhausting day. It was also a little frustrating to feel like there was still so much that we didn't see, but Heather had a great time and I heard kids on the bus, on the way home saying things like, "That was a fun field trip," and "I really loved the zoo."

Thanks to those of you who bought something from the Rada Fundraiser. It helped make this possible.