Lemurs & Leopards & Bears, Oh My!

ICA (Island Christian Academy) had it's first field trip today - to the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence, RI. We were going to go during the summer vacation, but since "land animals" was going to be our science theme this month, we deciced to put it off til now. We couldn't have had a better day! We got there early, and as most children are back in school, it wasn't at all crowded. The weather was close to 90 degrees, but with all the shade you didn't feel it. JR had a checklist of zoo animals he might see, and each time we saw one, he excitedly checked it off the list. We saw

giraffes

 elephants

an anteater

bats (we saw real ones, but these weren't )

camels,

monkeys

and flamingos

just to name a few. But, the best part was we got to see the Flutterby exhibit, even though the website said it was only open til 1 September. Hundreds of beautiful butterlies all around us as we walked through.

The hardest thing for JR was NOT touching them. A few times, he put his hands out, as he normally would when he sees a butterfly - or any little critter for that matter -  but each time he did, he  caught himself, and didn't try to catch them. They were quite a sight, though, and so much fun to watch. Every time you'd try to take a pictuer of one, another would fly by and grab your attention. We even got to see a worker who was putting out brand new butterflies who hadn't yet mastered the art of flying. It was so much fun to see that we visited it twice!

Then, half way through the park, we met up with his friend Nate & the rest of his famly, so for the second half of the day, JR & Nate led us all around the park, stopping at each and every exhibit, giving us the grand tour. As much fun at had it been the first time, JR enjoyed having his buddy with him the second time around.  Much to his disappointment though, we parted ways after our second trip around, and headed over to the Carousel Village which is on the same property as the zoo, where he rode the carousel twice before we left the compound and headed home. We stopped for an early dinner at Bugaboo Creek, and we all left there with full stomachs and tired feet. JR of course fell asleep half way home, right after calling his Grammie on the cell, to tell her all about his day. When she asked him what he favorite part was, his reply, was "meeting Nate there"...but then admitted he thought the snow leopard was pretty darned fun...

He still has one more zoo visit on his summer wish list, and wants to know when we are going to go...I figure I'll take myself a nice long nap, THEN I'll think about our next zoo adventure.