Category: Out and About

Usually whenever I take Isabel to the park, I just walk up the street about 2 blocks to our community park in the back of the complex. Today however, I decided to take her for a short drive to the community park at Silver Creek. The park is bigger and it has swings, including a toddler swing. She loves to swing and says that she’s flying – without wings.

This is a pole with a plastic base attached just above the ground. Kids can either stand or sit and then spin the pole – almost like a personal merry go round. Isabel thought it was a blast and actually figured out how to make it spin on her own.

I think this is supposed to be like a rocket. Kids sit on it and then rock it to make it jiggle. She liked this too and would run back and forth between this and the pole thing pictured at top.

This little boy is, Isaiah, he’s 2. Isaiah and his mother showed up about an hour after we arrived at the park. These two hit it off! They had so much fun and played amazingly together. Until they took off down the road…

After we walked around through the Asian exhibit, Isabel was getting hungry so we walked really quickly through a small animal exhibit with…

Blind Cave fish (these fish have no eyes – none, so weird looking)
a Barn owl and
a 16 ft. Burmese python!

Then we stopped along the path and had a picnic lunch. After lunch we headed over to Rocky Shores and saw…

Beluga whales (last time we came they only had 1; now the zoo has 2 beluga whales)
Pacific walrus

Isabel and I watching the walrus swim.

Then we headed to the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater to watch an afternoon show. We saw…

Eurasian eagle owl (which weighed 4 lbs. and had a wingspan of 5 ft. – that’s just about my height!)

Tawny Frogmouth.

Laughing kookaburra bird.

Bald eagle. We think this is an injured bird because of the way it held it’s wing.

Domestic rats
Beaver
North American porcupine
Armadillo
King Vulture
Indian runner ducks
Abyssinian ground hornbill bird
Green-winged macaws
Seriema bird

After the show it was time to head back home. We did stop by the Carousel and let Isabel have a go-around on Patriot.  This time she rode on one that actually went up and down. At first, I thought oh no, as her eyes got big as saucers and she gripped the pole and looked like she was about to cry…but she really enjoyed it…

Isabel and I on the carousel in a blur.

Isabel and Patriot.

What a wonderful gorgeous day at the zoo we had yesterday! We saw over 20 different animals and got to explore the newly opened Animal Avenue. At the Animal Avenue and Kids’ Zone we got to see…

Ring-tailed lemurs

Poison Arrow Frogs (Blue and Green/Black) along with

Meerkats
Black Lemurs
Green Crested Basilisk lizard
Ocellated Ray
Parma Wallaby (shy-but cute)
Antilles Pink-Toed Tree Spider (this spider was HUGE!)
Western Bell’s Hinge-back Tortoise…
and then we (Isabel) got distracted by all the play-ground toys and of course the Otter SLIDE! This was Isabel’s first time on the otter slide…she would have spent the rest of the day going down it if we would have let her…

Jumping off an alligators back.

Going down the otter slide.

So we headed over to see the Asian Forest Sanctuary with the elephants, tigers and monkeys. Here we got to see…

Siamang and Malayan tapir.
These two were teasing each other while we were there. So funny to watch!

Female white-cheeked gibbon (she looked so sad) along with…

Sumatran tigers (he was sleeping…all the times we’ve gone to the zoo; they are sleeping)
Lowland anoas
Asian otters
and of course the Asian Elephants (BTW- who kept their rears to us the whole time!)

As we were walking along the paths from exhibit to exhibit the zoo had gorgeous flowers blooming. I had to bend down and get a few shots to share.

Stunning red ones…

Vibrant violet ones…

Beautiful blues.

Yesterday we went as to see the matinee showing of “WALL•E”. Very cute and the moral of the story is a good one. Isabel did well during the previews and the first half of the movie but the last half of the movie it was time for a nap. All in all she did rather well for it being her second movie theater experience; her first being “Horton Hears a Who”.

Isabel and I with WALL•E.

Isabel has this “thing” for hanging and swinging from furniture that she can hang/swing from (the kitchen table, our computer desks, the entry table, etc.). We try our hardest to discourage this for fear she’s going to pull furniture on top of herself. So today, when we were up at the community park, I showed her how to hang from one of the bars on the toddler gym. Not such a good idea! She wanted to hang from every available location she could hang from! We had to keep an eye on her!

We tried upside down…and she didn’t like that to well…

But she LOVES upside right! Look @ that smile!

Climbing the “rock” wall on the BIG kids gym.

She’s debating on whether or not to hang from the bars along the stairs, above her head. I tell you, I made a little dare devil out of her!

Going down the BIG kid slide.

The air show is about to begin so we are going to head to our seats and watch. Enjoy!

This is a HC-130 Hercules and is used to extend the range of combat and search and rescue helicopters by providing air refueling.

UH-1 Huey/UH-1 Iroquois or “Huey” famous for it’s Vietnam War use. The “u” stands for utility, in contrast to attack of cargo helicopters. The last were produced in 1976 with more than 16,000 made in total.

Let the air show begin!

Wings of Blue.
The U.S. Air Force Academy began parachuting in 1964 when Cadet First Class Jay Kelley and Cadet Third Class Pete Johnston paired and won a novice team accuracy event – the Academy’s first gold medal in collegiate competition. The Air Force Academy is the only jump program in the U.S. authorized to allow students to perform unassisted free fall delays on their first jump without any prior experience!

Wings of Blue flag drop.

This is called the USAF “Heritage Flight”
and involves the P-51 Mustang and the F/A-18F Super Hornet.

Isabel showing off her earplugs.

This is called the U.S. Navy’s Tailhook “Legacy Flight”
and honors the people and aircraft who defeated our nation in the Navy.
The program was established in 1999 and involves todays state-of-the-art fighters flying in close formation with World War II, Korean and Vietnam Navy and Marine Corps fighters.

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds honoring 6 men before they start their flight show.

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds “diamond” formation.
Leader: Lt. Col. Greg Thomas
Left Wing: Maj. Christopher Austin
Right Wing: Maj. Kirby M. Ensser
Slot: Maj. Scott Poteet

We actually got to the base just after the gates opened to the public at 8 am. The event was free and drew a crowd for both days of 377,616 people! The next Air Expo is tentatively set for 2010. Enjoy!

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbird planes.

This is a MH-65 Dolphin helicopter.

This is MH-60R Seahawk.

This is the MH-130P Combat Shadow and does low-level refueling missions and resupplies of special operations forces by airdrop or airland.

This is a E-3 Sentry and provides all-weather surveillance, command, control, and communications to the United States, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, and NATO air defense forces.

Isabel enjoying a plain pretzel before looking at more aircraft.

This is the C-5 Galaxy and is used to carry oversized cargo and
is the largest military aircraft in the world.
I thought the C-17 was big…this thing is HUGE!!!

Inside the C-5 Galaxy.
Can you see Gino and Isabel?

This is the RC-135 Rivet Joint and is used to support theater and national-level consumers with near real-time on-scene intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination capabilities.