Naples Zoo

I realize that it is obscenely late for me to be blogging about Florida, but there is still so much to share! Plus, it is super fun for me to go back and look through the pictures and remember what a great time we had. On Friday, we went to the Naples Zoo. I honestly don't know when or if I have ever been to a zoo before. I must have been at some point because I have kind of a visual image in my head of what a zoo is like. It involves a lot of hot concrete between exhibits and animals in pens that are too small or so far away that you can't even see the animal. Like I said, I don't know where this image comes from, but the Naples Zoo was nothing like that. It was so beautiful and tropical and nice. We meandered through trees and got to see animals in very natural-looking enclosures. It didn't have the best selection of animals. There were mostly just alligators, turtles, monkeys, and a few different kinds of big cats like lions, tigers, etc. It wasn't even very big, but it was so relaxed and enjoyable. We went to a little show on "predators" where they brought out a few different animals and told us about them. We got to see a Gila Monster eat meal worms and this weird fox/dog thing do tricks. It was perfect. We also got to buy fish food and throw it to the fish in the ponds. We found an injured alligator who ate it too... (why he wasn't eating the FISH was beyond us). My sister flirted with a lion and he put on a show for her. We got to see the alligators being fed steak and hear all about them. We even saw a HUGE alligator ROARING up against a bank. We had no clue what he was doing until later we were told that it was mating season and that's how the males call for the females. It was pretty intimidating, I wouldn't come if my man talked to me like that. =) My favorite part was the monkeys. I love monkeys in general and at the zoo all of the different types of monkey had their own little island. I guess the water acts as a natural boundary for them and they all stayed put without any fences or barriers. To see them all, we got to go on a little boat ride around the islands and hear all about the different types of monkey. So fun. Somehow, my brother-in-law, Tyler, got a hold of our camera at the zoo so we have an ABUNDANCE of pictures (including his famous self-portraits). Here are a few of our favorites:

The vegetarian alligator...


and his fishy friends!

Ah! This one's trying to escape!!

Our favorite monkeys were Milli and Vanilli.

A shot of the monkey island tour boat.

Helloooo up there!! I wish I could remember these monkeys' name, it was something to do with their beautiful black and white coats.

These cool Banyan trees were everywhere! The tree grows out by dropping a sprout from the branches. It implants itself into the earth below and then grows thicker and thicker so the tree looks like it has multiple trunks. Very cool.

Go Cougars!

My sister's feline boyfriend. (Is this him, Katy, or was it a lion?)

Brooklyn loved the zoo. Enthralled.