Dinosaurs Alive!

The Toronto Zoo has an exhibit on right now (until October 8, 2007) called Dinosaurs Alive! It's a pavilion of animatronic dinosaurs, and fossils and bones and stuff. An 8 year old boys dream. Since Hubby was working on Sunday, Son and I headed out to the Zoo for the afternoon. Admittedly, the Zoo is not a cheap outing - parking and admission alone for us was $40, but it's money well spent. I love the Zoo. you get to see all kinds of animals, and the learning experiences for kids (hidden in the fun you are having) are priceless. The dinosaur exhibit was great - it had signs warning of the realistic nature of the dinos, and how they may be "too intense" for younger patrons. They're not kidding - some young ones we saw were seriously scared! These babies were life sized...Son, a seasoned 8 year old, was not seduced into thinking they were real, but they had stations set up where you could make some of the dinos move specific parts.

He's controlling the Allosaurus here. It was a very cool exhibit - I'd show more pictures, but my son is recognizable in all of the other pictures.

We wandered over to the African Savannah as well...

The elephants were pretty frisky - it's hard to convey the speed at which they were moving here.

This meerkat was standing and posing for quite a while. Every child in the vicinity was calling him Timon. I forgot to take pictures of the Puumbas (warthogs) we saw later...

The tigers were active - it's always hit or miss with them - sometimes they are just slugs, but on Sunday, they were walking around. Of course, the clearest picture I have of them is of them sitting around...We also spent some time in the Indo-Malay area - the butterfly pavilion is one of my favourite areas - the building is filthy with butterflies...And around the corner was a crocodile, just looking at everyone...

And we got to the orangutans right at feeding time...

Son is a big monkey fan. We also saw the Gorillas, Chimps and the Macaques - my fave. The macaques were by far the funniest and most active.

Son was impressed that pretty much every animal we saw, peed while we were there. Thankfully, none of them decided to do it AT us...

I have modelled shots of the beaded choker, however, TPTB at work have decided to stick me at reception today (I think I'm being punished for something), and I can't access pictures. Yes, I'm senior staff, and I'm at reception). Whatever - it's very peaceful out here - they can punish me all they want! (I'm so getting out of this hellhole soon...)