Point Defiance Zoo

March happened so fast.  It always does.   Now we are going into the spring season.  Spring is my favorite season, but it is stating again at the odd pace.  Some flowers in the neighborhoods are blooming already and the rain is beating them down.  I hope the they will stay blooming through out the season because it makes the walk around the neighborhood more fun.  "Wow, Mommy this flower is pretty!" girls would comment and I snap their pictures.  It is also the season the furry neighbors, squirrels and bunnies, mate and we can see them chasing one another like nothing else matters.  The animals are busy, too. 

When we visited Tacoma, we decided to stop by at the Point Defiance Zoo there.  It was nearly 3:00 pm when we arrived and the zoo closes at 4:00 (they allowed us to stay until 4:30), so we decided it will be a quick one.  Since we are reading the "One and Only Ivan", we toured the zoo discussing what a good animal enclosure is.  In the book it talks about a "good zoo" and a "bad zoo".  A good zoo it says is a zoo that provides an ample space for the animals and make their enclosures look more like a natural habitat.  They would also be well maintained and has a lot of appropriate setting to provide stimulations and physical activity.  The bad zoo is opposite of that.  It has small, dirty and bare cages with nothing to give stimulations for the animal.  As we looked at each animal, we asked ourselves if it is a good enclosure.  We all agreed that most of them were at Point Defiance Zoo!

It was a cloudy day and at late hour, there weren't too many visitors at the zoo.  It was great because we felt like we had the zoo to ourselves!  The animals looked at us and reacted to our movements, so it was very interesting for children to interact with them.  We saw, elephants, tigers, walruses, otters, polar bear, arctic foxes, reindeer, some kind of buffalo, and some farm animals.  The kids liked watching walruses since they were swimming dynamically back and forth with their massive bodies.  Their faces looks like mustached old men and their expressions were very funny.  The girls could have taken home the arctic foxes if they had a choice to do so.  They were awing as one of them ran around the enclosure like they are doing laps.  They were fluffy snow ball but I am sure their beautiful white fur will be stained bright red when they make a kill.  I wondered if the girls would still want to take them home after their "feeding". 

I was impressed with how well Noah did.  He did not scream nor tried to run away.  He enjoyed looking at the animal just like the other children.  He pronounced each animals correctly and was a happy little guy smiling as the animals walked past us.  There was a kid's play area near the entrance so we played until the closing time.  They all had fun climbing and running around.  It's a great zoo.  I was quite impressed with it.  It's not as big as Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, so it's perfect for a family like us.  We should go to Woodland Park Zoo soon to compare and also visit the gorillas.  There weren't any gorillas at Point Defiance. 

The day in Tacoma was successful and very educational.  It was worth it risking encountering gangs:-).