Being tourists in our own backyard.

So who knew a mere ten minutes away was a rather impressive little zoo. I had actually heard the name mentioned many times before, but we'd never taken advantage of it. With today promising to be sunny, but not too hot it seemed like the perfect opportunity to check it out. I had been tossing around the idea of planning a trip to the Toronto zoo with the kids while we were off, but, to be honest, that was a long way to go if Abby was having a cranky day and/or the kids lost interest. If you live in the area Twin Valley Zoo is great for younger kids and it doesn't kill the pocket book either. For three adults and one child (Maya was free) the cost was about half what we would have paid at the Toronto Zoo.

Now I know you're thinking in a little "home grown" zoo the animal selection is probably less than stellar. While it's true that there's no penguin pavilion or polar bear habitat there was a somewhat large collection of the big jungle cats, including a pair of lions (who recently produced an offspring), a tiger and a couple of cheetahs.



There was even a pair of rather large bears, one of which was quite interested in us. When he approached his section of the park he lumbered right over to us and sat right down to have a real good look.

On the way in they sell bags of grain and peanuts for a dollar a piece to feed the animals along the route. We bought a bag of each and for that the animals were grateful....



if a little swarmy. Which freaked Abby out just a little bit despite our assurances they wouldn't be able to make it over the ten foot fence.

The best part of the day, though, had to be the "creature show" which we stumbled upon entirely by accident. Having toured the entire zoo we paused at the small play center they have set up for kids. It's nothing more than a few little tykes plastic play structures, but the girls were happy with it. This area was adjacent to the cages housing the orangutans and the ring tailed lemurs. As Abby played an employee showed up to feed the lemurs and some other animals near by. Which we thought was a fun bonus and then she tells us that she'll start the show in just a minute.

Umm show? What show? The fact that a show was starting was news to us. Lucky for us we happened to be in the right place at the right time. Being the only people in attendance we got an up close and personal show. She even allowed us to pet the baby lion, something they don't do in a larger group.



While it may appear that Maya was uninterested don't be fooled. Girlfriend was all about it. She could not wait to touch anything and everything put in front of her.



And yelling at the lady when there were things she wasn't allowed to touch, like the tarantula. Maya was so excited about seeing this lizard that the lady brought it back to her so she could touch it again. Abby, ever the eager student, dutifully raised her hand every time the lady asked if we had any questions, whether she actually had a question ask or not was irrelevant. Although a couple of times she did ask, what do they eat? For their part, Mike and Granny overcame some large personal hurdles and touched all the reptiles too. Stories about Mike freaking out both before and after he touched the snake are all 100% true.



full photographic evidence is here