(Lauren) It's a zoo out there!!!

On Friday, I went to the Honolulu Zoo with my sister, Cassan, my niece, Ashley, her boyfriend, Jansten, and my youngest niece(for now), Lauren. My sister is due in around 2 weeks with twins so this may be our last chance to go to the zoo and it has been years since I have been. My sister told me to just come over when I woke up but I woke up at three in the morning, an effect of my working schedule. so i did laundrey and cleaned house until 10 am. By the time we got to the zoo, it was noon and blazing hot. I've concluded that the zoo needs to seriously consider moving their facilities indoors and investing in central air conditioning. this is not a frivolous request. The animals also looked hot and lethargic, mainly just lying down in the dirt, most likely from heat exhaustion. The poor flamingos were standing one-legged in their sad little concrete pool that had a few scattered droplets of water.

I did get some awesome pictures.

Warning: if you see some grouchy faces, it's because we were very very very hot.

When my sister asked if we could go to the zoo, I said "are you sure, that's a lot of walking." She said "oh, I don't mind." I replied " are you sure? you don't even like the walk from the parking lot to the sand when we go to the beach." And sure enough, we were halfway through the zoo parking lot when I began to hear the grumbles.

In the zoo was a keiki section that was pretty cool. Except there was an

area with llamas that looked very menacing. Aren't those the ones that

bite and spit? We stayed clear of that area. Oh, and by "llamas" I actually

mean the animal, llama...not like when my sister says "look at the llama." She

actually means 'ostrich.' No biggie. They are somewhat alike animals.

This is my oldest niece, Ashley, holding Lauren. I was surprised she came

since we left her house at 10 am which is about 4 hours before her usual awake time.

This gorilla was supercool. I wonder if he could get across the little moat.

The only way my sister, Cassan, will allow pictures to be taken of her is
if when you ask, you ask at a whisper under your breath and your shot is
when her back is turned and she doesn't see you.

We thought the hippo pool was empty and we were ready to give up when
my sister finally figured out that the two rocks on the side were the hippos.
The one on the right is coming up for air. When we looked closely, you could
see all these whiskers at the front. I guess he signed on for "mustache may" too.
(I'll explain that term later)

One of the coolest exhibits in the keiki zoo was a tunnel that goes right
through an aquarium. I barely was able to crawl through. Lauren easily
walked right through it.

Halfway through the tunnel is a glass dome where you can see the fishes
swimming right around you. That was amazing.

Lauren did very well. We tried to point out all the animals like the elephants
and the monkeys but she was way more excited to chase the pigeons around the
sidewalks. We could have saved ourselves a few bucks and just stayed out in
the parking lot. I saw a lot of pigeons there.

She did try to tackle a peacock. I saw her running towards it and I almost
didn't get to her in time.