Back to Part 2 of National Zoo Field Trip
One of the highlights of this Field Trip were the very playful sea lions that where really interested in the kids. They swim so gracefully and really captured the kids attention and interest. These playful animals are California Sea Lions and live in North America. You can tell them apart from true seals by their external ears. My 7 year old son asked where the sharks are as we explored the area as he remembered that where there are seals, there tends to be sharks! We didn’t see any sharks today though. Sharks are a real interest to the kids these days.
Even baby in the stroller loved watching the Sea Lions. They seemed to like to watch her too! It has to be noted that baby is a phase where she wants to do what she wants to do and doesn’t like to wait for anyone or anything. Normally she doesn’t like to stop and look at things that don’t really interest her, she really enjoyed this area. As a mother with Fibromyalgia and other autoimmune issues I have to say I was thankful for the shade on a hot day and a place to sit for a moment and enjoy the view.
Another highlight of the National Zoo is the little tide pool area for kids to play in and cool off a bit. There are several fountains that come out of the ground that little kids specially like to step on and try to stop and then every few minutes or so a tide would come as shown above in the photo and wash over the kids feet about ankle high. One of the things to note is that it seems small babies love standing right over the fountains that change height often, thus soaking diapers some parents where not expecting to have to change right then. The closest bathrooms are about 3-5 minutes away with lost of distractions between them!
In this picture you can see our oldest daughter enjoying the water, she even got her cargo shorts wet. She loves water and she loves to play even though she is nearly 14. She has sun a fun spirit. Our middle daughter who is 5 is in the dotted rainbow dress and just loving the water and in the back you can see our baby who is 3 in the pink dotted dress.
Our 7 year old son didn’t want to enjoy the water. I wish I could remember the great vocabulary word he used to try and explain why he did play too, something about the water are being out of place in his opinion in a zoo. We then got to explain how the zoo tries hard to keep all the animals nice and cool in the hot summer and as people are animals too, they try and keep us cool as well. TIP: In many areas of the park there are misters you can walk through and kids can play under to help keep everyone cool on hot days. They are wonderful!
That looks like a nice zoo. The sea lions enclosure looks like they have a ton of space!
This looks like a great zoo. I wish that ours had a splash zone to cool off in. I love going to the zoo, its been a while since we went.
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