tigers... they're greeeaaaat!

We're still on 'vacation' I guess you'd say... big J took his first whole week off this year; he hasn't done that in 3 years... I went into labor w/ little J on a weekend, so he only took 3 days off that week....we went to Texas last year, but planned it as a 4 day weekend so he only took 3 days off then... so I guess the last actual week off he took (outside of heart surgery, which doesn't at all count as a vacation) is when we last went to the beach 3 years ago!

We had a few activities planned for the remainder of our vacation week, and today we visited Tiger World. We all had so much fun looking at all of the species of Tigers, Lions, and other animals and reptiles they had. We were able to talk to many of the care givers of these huge beasts, and at one point happened to walk up right after one of the care givers was 'sprayed' in the face with a bath of urine from one of the largest Tigers... it was funny to hear about - but not at all funny for her.

Here's a few pictures from our little field trip today.

Above: This was our tour guide, this goose followed us everywhere the entire time... and Jesse was quite disappointed that he couldn't hug it. He loves to hug everything these days...

Ezra had a blast - his favorites were the macaw's and the bears.

Above: White Siberian Tiger - I didn't know this, but the stripes on tigers are like our fingerprints... no two are the same!

These macaw's (there were 4) were saying 'hello' so clearly, that at first I thought a child was talking somewhere near by!

Below: This was my favorite - this peacock (Indian Peafowl) flirted with us for a while, but would never let me in front to get a picture of the full spread of beautiful feathers. He hopped right up on the fence beside me where I was propped to take pictures of him.. I have a few closeups of his neck and beautiful blue color in the smugmug files.

Below: the Emu is not the most attractive of animals, but sure is friendly. I didn't realize that they can grow up to 6.5 feet in height, and can actually sprint up to 50mph if necessary!! These were really lazy, hanging out and socializing with the human guests that were visiting them...
Below: this Bengal Tiger was sleeping... (see the sleeping pics in smugmug) until Jesse tossed a rock at it.... at which time I'm pretty sure the Tiger saw Jesse as a potential snack. The Tiger never got mad, or growled; he never really showed any aggression - but the look in his eye read "little red shirted snack, don't toss another rock at me". (we encouraged Jesse to toss rocks at grass, and other objects that don't have sharp teeth)
Below: Mama bear, there's also a baby bear (in smug pics)
Below: this is the Tiger that pee'd on his keeper :) - when it happened, she screamed, which made me quiver inside thinking "oh no, something got loose" HA!
I took lots of pictures, and there's one or two of the largest White Siberian Tiger in at the facility.

Tomorrow, on to our last little outing...