York's Wild Animal Kingdom

Sunday morning we were sitting at home. Jen and I were in the office messing with the new iTunes. The kids were in the living room watching Full House DVDs. Jen paused for a moment and said we had to go out today and do something interesting or else the kids were going to spend the entire day in front of the tube melting their brains.

She first suggested going back to Portsmouth and checking out some stores she's found near her work. That was fine with me, but the kids would probably hate it. I suggested we find something kid friendly too to sweeten the deal for them. She found something and suggested it to them but the reception was pretty cold.

So onto the Internet my wife goes. She does some research on Portsmouth, NH but eventually decides to widen the search. She stumbles across something interesting in York, ME. York's Wild Animal Kingdom. It is two parks, a zoo and an amusement park. Both together are a tad more expensive than we wanted to go, but if we stuck to the zoo alone it would be affordable.

The decision had been made, but we didn't tell the kids. It would be a surprise for them. We packed into the car and headed North. Visions of Old Orchard Beach were swimming in one first grader's mind as we crossed the bridge on route 95 that separates Maine from New Hampshire. No dice kid, we're going some where else.

We got to the parking lot and spilled the surprise. They seamed a little apprehensive at first. Maybe because the sun was very bright and it was really hot on the pavement. We bought our tickets and then, before entering the zoo area, went to get some lunch.


The line at the snack bar wasn't long but it was unbelievably slow.



We spent way more time than we wanted to waiting in the line.


There was also the issue of the previous day's heavy rains. Half of the picnic area was under water.


We persevered though and rose above the challenge. That was a good thing because as soon as we got into the zoo we saw this:


A baby monkey (or similar primate) hanging upside down by one foot. Awesome! I seriously wanted to take him home with us.


Next to the world's coolest monkey was an area where you could feed goats. Feeding the animals is always fun, but these goats were very up front about wanting some food. There wasn't a shy bone in this guy's body.


Continuing on the cuteness end of the animal kingdom were the lemurs. We tried to get them to sing, like in the movie Madagascar, but they weren't having it.


There was a pond where you could ride paddle boats. We decided to skip the boats and took the scenic view. There were paths around the water with a few bridges where you could look down on the boats and the birds. When I say birds I mean ducks and geese. Dozens of them. Each one cooler than the one before. Ducks are awesome.


We saw a few of these guys at the San Diego zoo while on our honeymoon. This is the world's largest rodent.


Which lead us to more goats. This time, baby goats.


Mom excused herself for a minute to do some secret cloak and dagger style work. The kids and I saw these two guys and had to check them out.


Mom rejoined us just in time for this. Cover your eyes kids. Hey tortoises, get a room!


Jen's secret agent work had to do with checking on the rules for the goat area. Not only could we feed the goats, but we could go into their pen and hang around with them. Again, the goats weren't shy at all. One of them kept standing up and putting his front paws on us in an attempt to make sure we wouldn't pass him over with the food we were handing out. He also decided that Jen's camera strap would make a tasty snack and took a chunk out of it.

The journey continued and we got to see some huge lizards...


...some tiny little frogs...


...an ostrich...


...and a lynx.


Next we came upon another walk-around-with-the-animals-while-you-feed-them area. This time with deer. Little Bambi looking guys. They were great, but pretty shy. They would come up to you and eat out of your hand, but they wouldn't hang around long enough for you to pet them. We all tried though.




At the hight of grossness we saw a wildebeest taking a leak... while another wildebeest took a drink. He actually tried to drink straight from the tap. Gross indeed! I failed to get a good picture, but I'm not sure you really wanted me to get one.


We learned that Prairie Dogs are awesome and that they live at The Alamo, complete with miniature cannons.


Here we see a Prairie Dog re-enacting the battle. Remember the Alamo!


There was a large closed in butterfly area. Inside we saw these guys.


There were also a few butterflies.






Our original plan was to head home in time for dinner but we were having way too much fun so we decided to go out. It was decided that lobster was the menu item of choice. We wandered back down into New Hampshire and headed toward Hampton Beach where we stopped at Brown's Lobster Pound (is that the name, or is it just Brown's?). The males at hamburgers while the females ate lobsters. It always looks like a major struggle trying to break the suckers open.


One interesting item of note about Brown's is the view across the marsh. This is what you see.


Need a closer look? Allow me to zoom in...


Yes, that is in fact Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. I assure you though, there were no meltdowns and no lobsters were irradiated in the making of this post.

After dinner we made the long drive home. We did manage to stop at one more place in Salem, NH... Hawksie's ice cream. It wouldn't have been the perfect day out without some ice cream topping it off.

So it was, in fact, a perfect day out.

Think we can get a pet monkey?