Today was the last day of our Oregon trip. Our flight wasn't until 6:30pm so we checked out of our hotel early (couldn't get out of there soon enough…yuck!) and visited Washington Park one last time. This time we spent the morning at the Oregon Zoo.
It was damp and cold, but that created a nice environment for the animals to be out and active. We were first greeted by this very serious mountain goat. He didn't flinch the entire time we watched him.
This zoo is a lot smaller than ours in SD, but the exhibits were great and the landscape was so different.
This chimp, Jackson, was so sweet. Taylor kept waving at him and he kept smiling and laughing back. We went back later to watch all of the chimps get lunch outside. The keeper called them all by name and threw bits of sweet potato, banana, carrots and spinach into their enclosure. Each chimp seemed to have their favorite and collected piles…so human-like!
I had never seen so many lions in one spot. 7 females and 2 males, including 3 new cubs born in September. Throughout the day they made their way around their enclosure and interacted more than we have ever seen.
We saw hippos, bald eagles, giraffes, penguins, orangutans
and several breeds of large cats.
Throughout the week we saw several stands selling elephant ears and finally had to try one. It was a giant fried dough shaped like an elephant ear and covered in butter and cinnamon sugar…Yum!
After covering the entire zoo, we loaded up for the airport. We were all anxious to get back to sunshine, but it was a wonderful time with the girls. We covered a lot of territory in one week and saw so much beauty in Oregon.
