Wednesday - Oregon Zoo day

On Wednesday the guys went to work, and the kids and I left around 11:00 for a trip to the Oregon Zoo.  Tasha had previously taken Brennan there by public transportation, so I was kind of eager for the experience.  I would never have  done it without her.  First we walked to the end of the street to the bus stop.  I took a picture of this pretty bush as we waited. 

We had the bus to ourselves at first.  

Apparently they always sit on the very back seat, so that's what we did. 

After about twenty minutes we got to Gateway Transit Center where we waited for the train that would take us to the zoo.  Tasha was figuring it all out on her phone.  I trusted her. 

Again, not many people on the train when we boarded.

She said we would be getting off at the sixteenth stop.  WELL.  Brennan, who never, ever stops talking, wanted to keep track.  And keeping track meant talking about it constantly the entire trip to be sure we all agreed which stop we had just made and which one would be next.  I think everyone on our section of the train was counting down with us, lol!!

I wish I had taken more pictures along the way.  We saw bridges and highways like this....

...but we also went through a lot of city scapes, right downtown I think. And through a very dark tunnel, maybe under the river?  I'm not quite sure. 

The stop at which we got off the train was right across from the zoo. We were hungry and wanted to get something to eat before entering.  Tasha googled a place nearby and we tried to follow the walking directions.  After a bit we realized that it was actually right inside the entrance to the zoo! 

We enjoyed sandwiches and chips and water.  Then we were good to go. 

The first thing we watched was a bald eagle spreading its wings.

The otters were so much fun to watch.  

A beautiful cougar.  

This barn was quite empty this time.  I remembered from our trip there last year that we had fun watching goats.  I think they were mostly outside and hiding or resting this time. Aren't the hanging flowers so lovely?

Here's a rabbit we saw.

And one of several big turtles. 

Then we went to the polar bear display.  This was quite entertaining as he tried to get something on the other side of that gate. 

Next up, a carousel ride.  I thought Brennan would want to ride a horse, but he preferred sitting on a bench with his sister. 

We were getting HOT and tired.  So ice cream was a very welcome break. 

The whole time we were eating our ice cream we were right next to the tigers.  We couldn't see them, but we could hear one roaring loudly.  As soon as we finished our ice cream we went to the see it.  Almost as soon as we got there it decided to go into the "barn" and we didn't see any more of it.  Bummer!  It was so beautiful!

So we settled for some flamingoes instead. 

We were eager to go on the train ride, so we walked to that. 

The engineer gave us an interesting history lesson on how originally this train ride went past the International Rose Test Garden.  But for some reason (which I don't remember) ten years ago that part of the ride was no longer available.  An effort has been made to revive that, and apparently in about three years it will again be available.   Some of you may remember when we visited the rose garden in 2017.  Truly spectacular!  

We were delighted to see the elephants as we rode the train since we had not gotten to that part of the zoo. 

When we were finished with that ride we decided we were tired enough and it was getting late enough that we should head back home.  

It was fun to sit, waiting for our train, and see it coming through the tunnel. 

I assured Brennan right from the get -go that we were not going to be keeping track of the stops this time, haha!

When we got to the Gateway Transit Center we looked for bus 22.  Brennan was excited to see it because he knew that's the one that takes us home. Once again we rode the back seat of the bus that took us to their street. And we were home again. 

  

Jeremy had assured me that I would not be cooking dinner after going with the kids to the zoo.  I remembered a Mexican restaurant that we'd loved on our October 2021 trip, so we went there.  It's a really great little, very friendly place with the BEST food and friendliest service.  We loved everything about it. 

Unbeknownst to Tasha, Mike told the server that she'd had a birthday two days prior.  So later in our meal our server put a sombrero on her head and everyone sang Happy Birthday!  She was so surprised and a bit embarrassed, maybe.  When we were finished singing a guy at the bar called over that it was his birthday too, and that made her smile.  It was fun.

Back at home, Jeremy cut some of their beautiful flowers and arranged them in vases.  Aren't these gorgeous??