Fantastic Day

After the heat wave, we wanted to get out of the house and do something fun. So we decided to go to the zoo and ride the Washington Park Zoo train. In the summer it takes a long route that has a stopping point at the Rose Gardens/Children's Playground.

After spending way too much time driving around the parking lot looking for a spot, we entered the zoo and walked to the train and luckily were the last people to get a seat on the train, meaning we had zero waiting time. Score!

Jake, as usual, was very excited. This doesn't get old.
The breeze from the open windows was refreshing and it was pretty scenery!
I rode this train/route a few times when I was younger, was fun to take Jake.
We stopped at the mid-way point and got off and walked to the playground. Jake ran around like a wild thing. We had a picnic lunch there.
The slide was his favorite thing. He only went down about 50 times.
And convinced Daddy to do it once.
There was some time with the sand.
Then we headed back to the train station.
We got lucky again!! We were again the very last ones on the train and just walked right on. It was a different engine this time. Jake and I had a conversation comparing the Thomas the Train engines with the engines that were pulling us on this track. We decided the engine was more like Thomas than Gordon :)
Happy boy.
Back to the zoo where Jake insisted on seeing the giraffe.
We totally lucked out and happened to catch both the tiger and the leopard walking around. That never happens!
And then a visit to the very cool stellar lion tank.

Then back to the car where it was exactly time for a nap.