Northwest Trek was awesome! I brought my 19 year old sister to help me with the babies and things went quite smoothly (except for when some random guy didn't watch where he was going and totally knocked Ash flat on her face - she was quite distressed). We walked around looking at all sorts of wild animals, including bears, big cats, eagles, wolves, etc. We went to the kids activity center and saw snakes, a salamander, and a toad. Ash (with help) made some ladybug antennae which she wore all over the park. We had an hour tram ride which included some very close encounters with bison, caribou, moose, mountain goats and big horn sheep. We also saw a mother raccoon with four kits, some turtles, elk, and trumpeter swans. It was a long, fun day. We ended it with pizza and soda pop. My kids were asleep less than 5 minutes after we put them to bed. My only regret was not taking a pic of the cougar. It came out of hiding and walked up to as close to us as it could and stared at us. It was beautiful and disdainful of us and I was so into looking at it (and holding Ash up so she could see), I didn't even think about the camera until after it went back into hiding. But here are the pics I did get:
(cute and ready to go. they were not in the stroller for long!)
(bald eagles. their wings had been permanently damaged, though not by NW Trek, so they were in a pen with no cage on top. pretty neat.)
(my little cub posing with the life-size bear cardboard cutout.)
(the toad. it barely moved. reminded me of the days when i was a kid and would catch and release them on a very regular basis.)
(my new favorite picture)
(female caribou. she was close enough to touch, as were most of the herbivores. but it was grounds for dismissal to stick your hands out of the tram.)
(britt in a "log.")
(female moose. we never did get to see the bull. again, could have pet her on her fly-ridden nose.)
(ash, on the tram, taking it all in. she was very impressed.)
(one of many bison. he was close enough to touch too. but even if we had been allowed, I wouldn't have because he was huge and kinda scary!)
I'm sure getting a lot of exercise this week! :)
