Day 222/365 The Summer of the Field Trip

For the umpteenth year in a row, my DD is working at our local science museum. For the second year, she's being paid, and for the first year,she's more or less in charge.This means field trips to various exotic locations. It also means rounding up enough adult staff members, volunteers, and parents to serve as chaperones on those field trips. Bottom line, it means calling her mom to help out in a pinch. A couple weeks ago the journey was to Washington D.C., and this last week the bus rolled south to the North Carolina Zoo.

Above: peace and quiet in an empty bus.

Then campers arrive, and there is no more peace and quiet. Fortunately the bus has a DVD player, and, this being a science camp trip, DVD's of The Tiger, The Bear or The Planet fill up the time on the road. No mindless drivel for these kids.

Welcome to Africa: North Carolina Zoo style. (I've been to Africa, and there are no walkways like this when you arrive, just a dusty airport tarmac, and a guy who wants a tip to give you back your luggage.)

Part of the group, discussing how to see everything in 3 hours, while staying hydrated in 95 degree heat. Also marking every location of all known gift shops.

Love these guys. I saw a baby giraffe born once. But not here, and not today.

Every adult is assigned a child,and this is the great kid assigned to my daughter. By default I ended up spending the day with her as well, and she's now my favorite kid, next to my own daughter. One thing I learned as a parent: my kid's great. Everyone else's drives me crazy. Except this one - she's cool. I'm going to try to be assigned to her on the other field trips too - that'll save me from some of the crazy kids....

The smartest animals at the zoo were once again the elephants. They headed for their pool and made their own sprinkler. I kept wanting to donate a slip n'slide for them.

No idea what these tropical flowers were, but they were blooming next to the rhino field, so I can only imagine what they're fertilized with. The blossoms themselves are about the size of a extra large serving platter.

How cool is this? The whole zoo has bronze sculptures of animals tucked in here and there. And this little guy was just draped over a railing. DD wanted to bring him home immediately, but we didn't have a big enough backpack.

Not sure if these were the poisonous frogs or not, but they were in an air-conditioned building, which made them INCREDIBLY popular. I know I glued myself to their tank until someone peeled me off.

Not a lawn ornament, but plays one on the weekend. I grew up watching flamingos at the Audobon Zoo in New Orleans where there were huge flocks. You know why they're pink right? No? You must not have done science camp. Or watched the Animal Planet. Flamingos are pink because they eat crustaceans (shrimp, crawfish, etc). Of course, this begs the question whether all the lovely pink flamingos along the Gulf will now be murky brown, but that's another blog.

Bamboo forest. Waited for crouching tigers, hidden dragons or ninji's here. Nobody showed up.

It's 95 degrees, so we thought we'd go to the desert where it's probably cooler.

This brought back memories of our turtle rescue days, when I made plates of plums, scrambled eats, chopped chicken breast, and lettuce, and served it up to our six box turtles. They loved my cooking. No idea what's wrong with the rest of my family.

Reptiles are messy eaters. But always members of the clean plate club. Sometimes they even eat the plate.

Last photo. Not sure if DD smuggled this guy out or not. He could have fit in the backpack easy.

Guess I should check the snake tanks upstairs.

North Carolina Zoo, opened year round, everyday but Christmas. I really,really strongly suggest going when it isn't 95 degrees.