To The Indianapolis Zoo

Kevin headed back to Louisville on Sunday afternoon to pick up the dogs and to go to work on Monday morning, but Lewis and I stayed up north. On Monday, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo, which I also hadn't been to in many, many years. We spent 5+ hours there, so we had a lot of fun and were very (very!) tired by the end of the day.

 Cousins in front of the new Orangutan Center 

Lewis and Juni rode their first roller coaster! 

Cousins, waiting on the train :)

On the train

I see you back there, Auntie Schwee! #photobomb 

 Feeding a carrot to the giraffe

 Have rock, will climb

There was an area where you could try to outrun a cheetah, which Lewis tried out twice. He did his best, but he just couldn't quite get going fast enough. ;)

 Go, buddy, go! 

 Checking out the elephants

The last time I visited this zoo, you could RIDE the elephants, which had to have been a long time ago.

 At the dolphin show

 Snuggling up to Juni, who isn't such a fan of Lew's snuggles, hand holding, hugs, etc.

Lewis got antsy and wanted to leave after the first 5 or so minutes, so he and I slipped out while everyone else stayed for the show. We grabbed some ice cream and hit up a playground, instead.

 There's a polar bear lounging on that rock to the left, above the water.

 Trying to pet sharks with Gramma

I'm not sure than any came close enough, but they tried.

 Penguins!

I wish I could have gotten a picture of his face--maybe you can sort of tell that he is smiling from ear to ear. He loved these penguins--he loved to watch them jump in and dive down below.

We were going to leave but decided to head over to the bird area, and I'm so glad we did. I don't generally care for birds, but we were able to feed some and have them fly all around us (which, honestly, was terrifyingly similar to the movie Birds, but I think I kept my cool, for the most part). :)

While I was taking Juniper and Lewis' picture, with my camera in one hand and bird seed stick in the other, one landed and started chowing down. It was a little scary, especially after it finished the seed and moved down to investigate my fingers. I was sure my eyeballs were next, but it thankfully flew away. 

Attack of the Bird Man Lew! 

 Papaw and Otis :)

One last stop at the carousel on the way out

We hit up the roller coaster again, too, and then headed on our way.

Afterwards, we all headed to Mass Ave. for dinner at BRU Burger was very good (would have been even better had I been able to have a yummy beer with my yummy burger, but in time). :) We ran into an old camp friend (Betsy) as we got back to our cars, which was a nice surprise!

Lewis and I got stuck in traffic on the way home (overturned semi blocking both lanes on 65 near Seymour), which added an hour to our drive, but we made it back safely. Lewis finally fell asleep about halfway into the drive, and he went right to bed when we got home. So many days of fun takes a lot of a person--I had swollen feet that night and had to put them up on a pillow and chug some water. I felt like I'd been run over the next morning, but I feel pretty much back to normal today. :) Good thing because the Bergstroms are heading down here tomorrow for a few more days of fun!