Zoo Crew

I have a question for you; what do letterboxers in the Pacific Northwest do on snowy days?

Why, they go out for a hearty breakfast and bundle up and go to the Oregon Zoo to letterbox, silly!

It was a balmy 33 degrees and the sun was shiny so 6 of us decided to get out of our homes where we have been hunkering down for the winter and search out the many letterboxes at the Oregon Zoo. These brave souls were Marmalade, Maiden, Aunt Teri, Miniles, my daughter Cat's Meow, and myself.

We started our day in the area where you would find the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. Namely the Bears, Bald Eagles, Beavers and the Ducks. Wouldn't you know it that they would put these two football teams side by side. But first, we had to do a little bit of research:

We had to find out what the local bears had for breakfast. Unfornately, I didn't see any little bells in these piles of scat. These bears must not have been from around here.

Find #1 was the Bald Eagle at the Oregon Zoo by bedlamite9. Isn't he the most beautiful creature you have ever seen? The bird not the box, silly. Althought the stamp image was not half bad. It is amazing to see these birds in the wild down along the Oregon Coast.

These furry creatures were snuggled up in their den and sleeping but we were still able to get a close up shot of them. Find #2 was the Oregon Zoo Duck by 7trailwanderers. Since the Zoo was not very crowded because of the weather, we were able to pull all the boxes without having to deal with alot of muggles in the area. We were able to sit in the enclosure by the light of the Turtle and Salmon tanks and stamp into this box at our leisure.

Find #3 was the Oregon Zoo Wild Wapiti box by 7trailwanderers. This one was a little harder to locate but thanks to the persistence of Aunt Teri, we were able to stamp into this one while listening to the beautiful recorded howls of the wolves.

Find #4 was the Visayan Warty Pigs by bedlamite9. The Warty Pigs were not in their pen which was a bit of a disappointment as well as the outside monkey enclosures that looked like some major construction was going on but there always seems to be some improvements going on at the zoo all the time. We took the Warty Pigs box over to the African Cafe and sat in the section overlooking the Aviary and drank hot chocolate courtesy of Maiden and causally stamped into the box.

For those of you reading this that don't know these letterboxers by their faces, let me introduce you. From left to right; Aunt Teri, Miniles, Marmalade, Maiden, and Cat's Meow. Outside the African Cafe we spotted a zoo worker taking one of the birds of prey for a walk. This is an American Kestrel, native to the area and very abundant in the fields around my home.

Find #5 Elephant at the Oregon Zoo. This box was much anticipated because it got us close to the newest inhabitant at the zoo, the new baby elephant born just 5 months ago and already weighing in at over 700 pounds. We watched as she threw some hay onto her head and nursed from her mommy. It was all so very cute. Our next stop was the inside of the Aviary that housed all the beautiful birds that we observed from the window in the African Cafe. This is one of my favorite places to visit because I am an avid bird watcher. If you have ever seen the bird sactuary we have constructed in my backyard, you would know how much I love to watch the birds.

It was not easy to catch these birds on film since they were flying all over and wouldn't sit still long enough, but I was able to catch photograph these three birds pretty easily:

Find #6 was Zoo by 7trailwanderers. After stamping in we headed over to see the giraffe.

And who could resist stopping in to see the most famous creatures of them all? None other than:

Wanna hear a funny story? Sorry Marm, it was too good not to tell everyone about. hee, hee.

As we were admiring these cute little creatures,

Marmalade spies a rogue little rat in one of the tunnels that seems to be in distress. He was looking very wobbly and falling over and it looked as if he may have been choking on something he ate. So, some of us are joking around yelling, "Someone call 911! Give him CPR!" and Marmalade is starting to freak out. So Miniles bolts out the door looking for a zoo worker who can help this poor little creature behind the glass. Suddenly, the little rats takes off down into the tunnels and seems to be okay. We all had a nice laugh because that little rat is probably patting himself on the back for performing such a great theatrical act and scaring the poor old lady on the other side of the glass.

Next stop is the bat cave. This attraction is one of the most popular exhibits at the zoo. It is just amazing to see how these rodents interact with each other and move around the enclosure. We made sure that we all pointed out to Cat's Meow each time one of the bats had to pee. This has been a running joke with my daughter. I love to gross her out by pointing out everytime we pass a horse or a cow peeing in the pastures around our home.

Find #7 was Oregon Zoo Tiger by 7trailwanderers. It seems that the cold weather has made the tigers a bit lethargic, but then again, I don't know when there has been a time that I have ever seen the tigers doing anything but lounging around their enclosure.

One last photo op on our way out of the zoo by the gift shop. Of course we all had to have a picture taken with the big scary bears in the neck scarves.

It was a lovely day! Thank you my friends for sharing it with me!