Normally Fridays are a day of relaxation around here. Jim works four days a week and then spends Friday recovering. But he really surprised me by announcing Friday morning that he wanted to go to the zoo.

The zoo? Really? But it’s HOT outside! And we have air conditioning in the house. And it’s HOT outside.

OK- I admit I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. And I may have been just a little bit whiny. Just a little bit, mind you. 

Jim even offered to leave me and Jade behind and take the rest of the children. But I hate being left out, so off we went.

The best part of the zoo visit was the new tiger exhibit. The Louisville zoo has a new Amur tiger. We made it just in time to watch his training session. We were less than 5 feet from him and only separated by a metal gate. He was HUGE! He weighed over 350 pounds. They were training him to sit and stand and lie down. This is him standing. SO impressive!

By the way, Amur tigers used to be called Siberian tigers. They’re the largest tigers in the world. And we stood five feet from him and watched him be fed horse meat and be trained to sit like a dog. Wow.

My next favorite part was the reptile exhibit. I usually don’t like reptile exhibits, but I like this one. Why? It’s air conditioned. And it has lots of benches.

Here the children are looking at a bunch of poisonous snakes. Or turtles. Or fish? I don’t remember. I just remember that it was in the reptile exhibit. And it was air conditioned. Did I mention it was hot out? And we forgot to bring the double stroller?

It was a really fun day, and I’m really glad that we all went. I enjoy going to the zoo (especially in the Fall!)