Polar Bears

With Amy in Dallas till Wednesday, I took Monday off work and thought I'd take the kids to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. I've posted images before of a previous trip, but that was the 'African' side of the zoo. Today, we went to the 'North American' side.

It was pushing 100 degrees by the time we got there, so we weren't expecting too much activity from the animals. I was initially proved right when we went past the lounging kangaroos & wallabies, both sacked out in the shade. We strolled over to the sea lions and got a small treat. A family of three were playing and the kids were fired up.

Right next to the sea lions were the Polar Bears; honestly, I was not expecting much. I've seen Polar Bear exibits before at a few zoos and those big northerners don't take kindly to warm weather, especially a day like today. As you can see from the pictures, I was quite mistaken. They were all about having fun. From the upper observation deck, we could see a few of them playing in the water, so we went down to where you could view them from below. I wish I could post all the shots I took. Absolutely AMAZING. I've never seen anything like it. A couple of them were playing right up against the glass. The coolest part was that we were the first ones down there, and when one of the bears saw us, they stopped and he wanted to play with us. He grabbed a little rubber washer toy he had and kept pressing it up to the glass like he wanted to play 'catch' or something. It was really incredible.

The pictures don't even do the size of this thing justice either. Their paws alone seemed as large as my torso. This went on for about 10-15 minutes until it appeared he wanted to go back and play with the other bear. Jude and kerrigan were beside themselves. The only thing that suprised me more than the bears was the kids nerves. They weren't scared or intimidated at all. They were right up on the glass wanting to get as close as possible.

So glad I had the camera.