Adventure Day

We've been talking for awhile about taking the little girls to the Santa Barbara Zoo via Amtrak. Christmas vacation, while they're both out of school, seemed like the perfect time.

Practicing her harmonica while we wait for the train.

So this morning, Leanne and I jumped on the train in Camarillo

picking up Mary and Leia as we passed through Ventura.

Pop drove alone to Santa Barbara and met us at the Amtrak station so we could continue our adventure.

Lunch on the pier turned into a spaghetti-slurping contest

when both girls initially turned up their noses at both linguini and chicken tenders.

A little ingenuity, a little bribery

and suddenly the noodles on both plates were all gone.

The weather forecast called for rain but the zoo had sunny skies and light breezes.

As always, the giraffes were first on our list. The line was long and slow,

but we eventually made it,

only to have Michael (the only male) turn up his nose

and walk away from the feeding station.

According to the zoo guys, he's "interested" in Audrey

so he followed her around until he got a chance to "test" her by drinking her urine - which we watched. Nothing else happened (that would have been interesting to explain to the littl girls . . .) so I'm guessing the "test" was negative. Life at the zoo is always interesting!

A lot of the animals were either up and swinging around (can you find both apes in the pic below?),

or asleep close to the exhibit windows, both of which the girls loved.

We even got to see the new baby aardvark, fast asleep and clinging to mom's back for all he's worth.

Guess who else fell fast asleep, as soon as we got on the freeway?

Great adventures can be so exhausting.