Day Trip to Zion Part 1

Even though we spent just one day at the park, I took a lot of photos!  Enough that I want to spread them over two posts. 

My dad came up with the idea to check out Zion National Park during my mom’s and his visit this fall.  The kids stayed home from school and we headed for the park mid-morning and arrived around noon.

Waiting for the shuttle. Fortunately, we didn't have a long wait.  We rode the shuttle all the way to the last stop.  It was a good way to see all the park has to offer with a future visit in mind.

Cool kids! At the start of our hike on the Riverside walk

 Strong kids!  “Holding up” this boulder

Adam, Kari and Katelyn

The whole family

Grandpa and Grandma

Adam and Katelyn in the good ol' Kelty pack we've used to carry each of our kids when they were toddlers.

Day Trip to Woodland Park Zoo

I will archive this to July 2017 in a couple days...just trying to catch up on missed posts!

Since moving away from the Northwest, I like to take my family to one of my favorite places each time we visit Washington state.  Growing up, I have fond memories of visiting Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo with my family and my grandparents.  We decided to take the kids there this summer, and what made it an even more fun day was that my sister Elsa, her family, and my parents came too!

The park has expanded a lot through the years.  Some of my favorite exhibits are the Northern Trail and the Tropical Rain Forest.  The elephants were a delight to watch, but they no longer have elephants.  I love seeing a lot of the animals, but my favorite might be the gorillas; I remember years ago visiting the zoo and seeing a mama gorilla with her baby. I just loved observing the way they interacted.

It was exciting to see grizzly bears up close with only a glass window between the big bears and us, and it was fun to see them swim in the water.

This time, I noticed there were more people and, of course, everyone was trying to catch a video or photo with their cell phones.

The river otters were a joy to see swimming in their little "river".  And the penguins are a lot of fun to watch, too.  There is so much to see at the Woodland Park Zoo, we could have spent two days taking it all in.

My parents visited the zoo quite often when they were a newly married couple living in Seattle. I'm sure it was a lot different (and cheaper to get in) then.