My Mother In-law and I took the boys to the Cougar Mountain Zoo yesterday, which is a few miles from where we live. I have started on taking them on outings, to see how they enjoy it. Walker is the perfect age now!
Not everyone is a fan of zoos/preserves I realize…I mean I wasn’t as a kid, after too many vintage zoos that were horrid (Seattle and Portland were plain awful, elephants chained and on concrete). The Cougar Mt. Zoo is an intimate learning area, with only a few areas to visit. Open air, with room and the animals actually seem happy. A perfect zoo for small children to spend 1-3 hours in. They are happy but not overwhelmed! And even the 15 year-old had fun – I think he enjoyed it the most, especially the talking birds….and the tigers. The gorgeous tigers!
The area for the tigers was one of the nicest I have seen. Grass, a waterfall with pond and more, there are two areas for the tigers as well.
Two little boys. really into the emus below them. Later, we went down and got to be right up to them.
Alistaire was very, very happy – giggling as the animals made lots of noise. Especially the Lemurs and Macaw birds!
The cougars live in the center, catching your eyes as you enter the zoo. Gorgeous kitties. I love cougars – especially when I see their tracks in the snow while hiking!
Tonight I face the difficult decision on how to stay within normal eating at a chain restaurant. Oy, even with nutritional stats online (thank you to King County, Wa for requiring chains post this!!) Looking at a menu while not hungry and looking at just how crappy the food is, is well….depressing. Ugh. I am getting used to eating every meal at home. It is hard when faced with 75% of the meals are a near days worth of calories. Yuck. and how nearly everything is white crap and or mass produced meat. I will miss my home cooking! No dessert for me 😉
~Sarah
It’s nice to hear that the zoo is nice…some are horrible! I hear ya on the crappy restaurant food too!
It was funny…Kirk and I ordered a plain salad, dressing on the side (we were at Olive Garden). Boy…have I gotten to used to fancy greens at home 😉 Although the tomato in the salad was ripe and tasty! I think we did pretty good overall, picking our way through 🙂
The other “zoo” I recommend out here is NW Trek – because the animals are few and in mostly natural exhibits. They have a tram tour through the park where those animals roam free. Pretty cool!