Sanford Zoo II: A Socially Distanced Dream

 If you have already read the post about us getting to go to this zoo last year, which was hosted by Matthew’s Gift so lots of families with medical kids got to go for free, you know we were gifted vouchers to come again for free! Wait.. I’m reading that blog post now.. did I not mention the vouchers?! There was a raffle last year that we did not participate in, but we enjoyed the free pizza from Matthew’s Gift. As we were packing the up the car to leave, a woman and her daughter who was probably in her 20’s asked us if Emma had a good time and I said, “I think she did. It was her first time at the zoo!” And she handed us an envelope saying they wanted her to have these. I didn’t know what it was, but said thank you. As they walked away, I open it and saw that it was two free tickets so we could bring her back! How sweet! They were further away at that time, so I exclaimed, “THANK YOU!!!” And they waved at us. It looked like they had won the tickets in the raffle. As Michael was driving us home, I opened the envelope again and saw that it was actually four tickets and four giraffe feeding vouchers, which I was extra excited about since I had wanted to feed the giraffes while we were there, but didn’t want to pay the $5 for one large lettuce leaf. Since we were already planning to go to the Birmingham Zoo with Michael’s parents the following month (reminder, this was last year, and we did go with his mom and had a great time), I asked Michael if I could give these tickets to my parents for Christmas and he said that was fine. 

So we were finally able to go with them quite recently on Thursday, November 5^th, which worked out great since that was also to kind of celebrate my mom’s birthday! There were probably only fifty people at the zoo, including us and the employees, who seemed eager to talk to us and give us information on the animals, specifically the giraffes when we were using our feeding vouchers, when we had questions. I only recall seeing a few other families, so it was very easy to stay socially distanced the whole time and take our masks off for most of the pictures. 

I do feel like a zoo is pretty self explanatory, so lucky for me I don't really need to write much else, and I can just post all of the pictures. But because there are so many I haven't edited any of them so the colors won't pop as much as when I edit them on Instagram or PicMonkey. Oh, and if you clicked on that link at the beginning to see our pictures the last time we went, it made me realize that on this trip, we accidentally skipped the area that had warthogs and a cougar(?) and a few other animals, so unfortunately my parents didn't get to see them. However, it maybe turned out for the best due to our time crunch we ended up being on. You'll see why in the next post! :)

^^ watching that red-billed bird.. could you see it in the middle of the photo?

  I felt the need to take a few pictures of Michael with my parents since they don't get to spend much time together. Usually when my mom comes down to see me and Emma it's when Michael is at work and my dad stays in Gainesville. But I am excited that we will be spending time with them after Thanksgiving too!

  We had four vouchers, but my dad and Michael didn't care about feeding the giraffes, so my mom and and I got to give them extra leaves of romaine! I am glad they were hungry enough because at first it seemed like the giraffes were content having their alone time off to the side. 

I was not a fan of this leopard eyeballing this baby as a tasty snack!! 

We watched this otter swim by many times, spin, and kick off from the window each time. In the picture below, Michael looks like he is making a gasp face because sometimes if you say "Oh no!" it makes Emma laugh, which he was trying to do for our pictures. And I love my dad getting the far away pictures of us taking pictures, as you will notice my closer pictures of my mom taking pictures. :)

Poor Trollie tossed off, mid-throw!! 

Who knows when all of this Corona Virus stuff will be behind us, but for now I find it somewhat interesting having the mask & social distancing signs in the background of our photos. For historical purposes. As you can see, and as I stated at the beginning, we only took our masks off for pictures when nobody was around. Clearly nobody (besides Daddy taking the picture) was around. Hooray for going to the zoo on a Thursday! 

Up on her "knee backs" to get a better look at the rhino! 

Crocodile vs an alligator

The huge turtle trying to find an escape while we were looking at the snakes. 

Visiting the llama again after checking out the gift shop, while my dad enjoyed a Bud Light (not pictured) and Michael waited with Emma in his favorite chairs by the splash pad area. 

Nothing beats a free day of family fun!!!!! :)