Day 11

North Carolina Zoo

May 17, 2013, 5:33 PM

Early this morning, but not too terribly early we left for the North Carolina Zoo. The plan was to meet up at the zoo with Brian and Kirsten and kids. I just have one thing to say, I'm EXHAUSTED!!!!!! Oh my gosh this zoo is huge. I mean really huge. 

The entrance is really cool, you drive in off the road and there is a parade of elephants. I looked that up, a group of elephants is called a herd or a parade. Calling them a herd just isn't as much fun, so parade it is. There were just off the road in tall grass. It was really striking. At first you think you might be looking into one of the zoo habitats, but no it's just cool statues. Now I'm sorry but that's kind of neat. So of course this became a picture opportunity for Ruth anne. Oh yeah!!!!! Spanky and I were out of the car before it even came to a full stop. Got some cute pictures with Spanky's peeps, then a few at the sign for the North Carolina Zoo. Before we left for the zoo of course we did research in our America's Best Zoos Guide Book and we found out this is America's largest walk through zoo, and I can tell you it's a lot of walking. It was a beautiful setting though. You felt more like you were in a park walking a trail. It's very nicely wooded, but lots of walking, did I mention that. Oh my gosh. The zoo has two sections, Africa and North America. We got through most of Africa and I was ready to sit down.

So we sat and had something to eat, just about then Brian called and they were in the zoo, so we waited for them, which was perfect, it gave us a chance to top off lunch with some ice cream. Hey I did a lot of walking, I deserved it! When Brian and Kirsten caught up with us we did the North America section. In the Africa section there was one really cool area where you could pay a small fee and go up on a viewing platform and FEED giraffes. Although I didn't feed the giraffes, I got plenty of up close and personal photos. It was the coolest thing ever. 

All round we had a great time. The kids got to run around like crazy watching animals playing in play areas. It was over too soon. After this we decided to get some dinner. Brian took us to a place they'd found Sagebrush. It was a steakhouse and the meal was very good. Then it was time to say good bye, the kids were exhausted, the adults weren't much better and tomorrow we are on the road again so we need a good nights sleep. 

Next stop DC.