Beautiful day for a field trip.

It had been a few years since we last went to the San Francisco zoo. It had been our first Wednesday of October tradition for a while but I think we missed the last two years for one reason or another. I almost didn't take them this year. I didn't evem tell the kids until Wednesday morning that we were going. I wanted to skip it yet again but in the end we drove up into SF to see the animals.

Evidently they have stopped their first Wednesday of the month Free day last year. You have to be a San Francisco resident now to get in free. But thanks to being a member of a kids park near us, we didn't pay full price to get into the zoo. It wasn't free like I had planned but we still got in for a doable price.

The zoo hadn't changed much. Sophie remembered where everything was located.  How could I doubt my Zoo Tycoon! Of course she would remember how this one was laid out. She was our tour guide for the day telling us what we were going to see next. But Ian was the map keeper. That boy loved being able to read the words on the map this time.  Henry just was in heaven being outside and not having to sit and do school work. Molly was actually pretty content to ride around in the stroller and get glimpses of animals. Mostly she pointed out the balls that were in each exhibit and say "bauw....bauw,".  She is getting closer to actually using words.

I think we saw every animal. We covered the park and looked in every cage or space.

They are slowly updating many of their exhibits to have these glass walls rather than fences. The fences were hard to look through some times and in many places there were two fences between us and the animal. So when we came to the ones with the thick glass where we could get right up close to the animals (if they were so inclined to come up that close) it was really nice.

One of the highlights of our trip was getting to see the snow leopard. We went into the observation area that had the big glass panels and soon the snow leopard came down out of its rocky terrain and paced right along the glass.

It even took a moment to really check out my kids. It was us on display for him perhaps?

It stayed right there next to the glass for a long time. It even rubbed up against the glass where my kids were pressed. It was just like Grandma's cat does when she wants to be pet. It acted a lot like a kitten but was just a lot bigger!

We had a great time at the zoo. It was perfect weather and the park wasn't crowded. Henry wants to go back again next week.  I had to tell him that perhaps next year.