Oregon Zoo – Three Visits in One Weekend!

We had a great time this weekend visiting the zoo three times!

Friday we went to our only Black Friday shopping event; the Reser's Outlet store was having great sales, so we went out there. They had food for $2 a case, and we spent $56! We bought 5 or 6 cases of food, but also a large jar of Big Daddy pickled sausages, and a large tube of pepperoni sticks.

After the Reser's Outlet, we stopped by the zoo to watch the Bobcats enjoy a papier-mâché Thanksgiving Turkey. These turkeys are given to certain animals throughout the weekend as enrichment, and are filled with treats. We waited for 30 minutes, and the zookeepers never showed up; finally, we went home disappointed.

Saturday evening, we returned for the Zoo Lights. We brought Alex Wiser with us. The Zoo Lights were . . . well, Alex, Alex, and Tiffany loved them, anyway. I thought they were pretty much like they've always been, but perhaps just a little less. Parking was predictably atrocious. In the past, there has been entertainment (musical entertainment, puppet shows in the Elephant museum, etc); there was none of that. In the past, we have waited in line for up to an hour for the train; this year, the line was approximately twice as long as it has been before, snaking almost all the way to the Penguin exhibit. Thankfully, we were able to talk the kids out of riding the train. The best thing about the lights is that it was not quite as cold as past Zoo Light events. We were still bundled up; Tiffany froze so much that she could neither walk nor talk, but she does that easily.

Alex Wiser spent the night, and we returned to the zoo on Sunday to watch the papier-mâché Thanksgiving Turkey enrichment events. The lions were first, and were the most spectacular. There were two turkeys in front of the viewing glass; when the lions were released, the two lionesses fought over the turkeys. They finally each got a turkey and went to work ripping them apart and eating the ground horse meat out of them. The male lion stood back and watched the lionesses eat; I do not believe he got any of the treats.

We spent three more hours at the zoo. We were able to see everything at a semi-leisurely pace, and also watch the Thanksgiving Turkeys being given to the Sun Bears, Orangutans, and Bobcats.