Columbia, SC: Riverbanks Zoo

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“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

- Winnie the Pooh

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I took Eva to the Riverbanks Zoo again recently and guess who we met up there . . .

. . . Cousin David and the little woman & girl child.

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We were quite excited. This wasn't just any old trip to the zoo, this was Alexa's very first time to a zoo. It looks here like David is removing the rope barrier and taking Lexi behind the scenes, but he's not. They're desperately seeking birds to feed in the lorikeet aviary. For a tiny extra fee you can walk through the lorikeet aviary and feed the birds a nectar formula. The birds get overfed and disinterested, so you should do this early in the morning before they act like Uncle Henry after the annual Thanksgiving dinner.

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It took some coaxing before we could get the girls fully involved.

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They finally settled in and enjoyed it. It was really pretty amazing.

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I found something at the zoo I'd never seen before:

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The Tanning Bed.

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Awesome, I know. Somebody propped the turtle shed door open and we got a sneak peek.

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The howling monkeys weren't howling or doing much of anything for us. Often you can find them all riled up and swinging wildly around.
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And then we had the whole alligator/shoe thing going on that put me a little bit on edge.
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I was glad, glad, glad to see a new show in the 3-D Theatre. This $2 show was great, we followed a sea turtle throughout his life. The previous show was a Sponge Bob movie that had nothing to do with zoology and was kind of strange and Eva made me go about 4 times and she'd always bury her face into my chest in fear.

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Then I saw something I'd never seen before in the Ndoki Forest. An elephant with her legs crossed. She stood like that for a long time. She was like that when we left her. You know what's neat? Her ear is so big, Eva could stand behind it and hide. We learned that in class one day.

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Lexi found herself feeding a 20' tall giraffe as we entered the African Plains. This giraffe is "Christy" and she is 9 years old. Riverbanks' baby giraffe was 3 or 4 months when we were there. She was still pretty tiny, so cute!

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Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh," he whispered. "Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw,

"I just wanted to be sure of you."”