Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

I had the pleasure of going to John Ball Park Zoo today with my family. I was expecting to see many wonderful animals and figured the kids short leg span would set the pace for our day. I realized right away that I was going to be the one holding us back because I wanted to learn names and habits of all the interesting animals. I have to say I am quite impressed with the Zoo and my family. The Kids did really well and when I asked Emma what her favorite animal was she said the Flamingo. She didn't explain why, but my guess is because Flamingos are pink.
The zoo had an exhibit of Brazilian rain forest animals and some artifacts such as oars and a boat carved from a whole tree trunk. I had seen many of these boats before and reaffirmed a nearly 6 year old promise to build one of these boats one day. I lived among the Brazilian people for two years in Sao Paulo as a missionary. Brazil has such a rich and wonderful culture and I brought back many wonderfull memories and aspirations. I had determined to build a boat and also oars after seeing fishermen build some in a remote village on the island of Sao Sebastiao.
Back to the Zoo... I was surprized to see how fast Wolverines walk around having always assumed them to be burly and not overly agile which was dead wrong. Also the claws on the bears were much longer than I had imagined. I have seen only black bears in the wild and it makes sense why Grizzly and Brown Bear inspire so much fear to those who only see them or hear stories about them. I intend to learn more about Bear and and understand them for what they really are. For the "real" details of our trip I would suggest Caity's Blog as she will post picts and other comments.