Our Annivesary Vacation Part 3 - Riverbanks Zoo

If you're just joining me, you can catch up on the not-so-pleasant start of our vacation in Part 1, and exploring downtown Columbia, SC in Part 2.

At long last, we finally made it to the zoo! We really had the best time! We got there right as they opened, so we were able to park right in front of the gates and walk straight into the first exhibit with very few other people. The first exhibit was the aviary, where we walked around and hung out with the birds! This was definitely one of Grayson's favorites! He is obsessed with finding birds, so he was thrilled to see so many just flying around him and within reach! We didn't pay to feed them because I wasn't sure how he would react to having birds land on him/us, but the birds were so active that we were able to get very close to them and they often flew right by our heads! Even now, a few days later, Grayson is still bringing me my phone and asking to watch the bird videos! He loves them! :) It was such a great start to our visit! My heart swelled up and I knew we made the right choice to still go to the zoo on this trip!

Next we saw a tiger, to which Grayson said, "It's Tigger! It's Tigger!" I started singing the Tigger song and he bounced and laughed. Then, we made our way over to the lions, which he was also interested in, but then a regular ol' bird flew by (not part of the zoo!) and he exclaimed, "BIRD!" Everyone around us thought it was pretty funny that he was more excited by the random bird than he was the lions. I told you, he LOVES birds!

We stopped by the monkey exhibit and had some snacks. The monkeys were super noisy and Grayson thought it was all very exciting! He enjoyed imitating them and jumping around!

Next was the petting zoo area, where Scott fed the goats and llamas and Grayson found a "bumbee" (bumble bee) in one of the garden areas and had to spend a few minutes sitting and watching it. It was really so refreshing just going at his pace and trying to see the world from his eyes. Here we are, surrounded by unfamiliar animals, and he is enthralled with a bee!

Grayson wasn't feeling the selfie... LOL!

Checking out the bumbee! :)

We continued through the rest of the exhibits, some he liked more than others. I thought he would love the reptile rooms because he is always searching for lizards in our back yard, but I think all the large lizards and snacks scared him or bored him (or both!). After a while, he would just say, "No!" when we walked up to a new tank.

My favorite part, in general, was hearing Grayson greet each animal! In every exhibit, he said, "Hi, ___" and when he was ready to move on, he would say, "Bye-bye, _______, bye-bye!" For example, "Hi, penguins!" Then a couple minutes later, "Bye-bye, penguins, bye-bye!" He literally did this was almost every animal we saw! It was the sweetest thing!:)

Our other favorite exhibits had to be the elephants and the giraffes! Grayson loves elephants, mainly because of Jungle Book. He also still asks to see the elephant picture on my phone! And he has mastered his own elephant walk, as a result of the zoo and the movie! Too cute!

And definitely the BEST part of the whole day was letting Grayson feed the giraffes! We walked over to the feeding area, Grayson was eating a nutrigrain bar, and the giraffes came right up to us! We were just going to look (I didn't know if he would be scared), but Grayson immediately held out his nutrigrain bar and said, "Some?" offering it to the giraffe! I told Scott we had to pay to feed them since he was so willing! We let Grayson feed them a whole handful of lettuce, piece by piece, and he loved every second of it! I wish I had gotten it on video! :( But we did manage to get several awesome pictures! He would reach for more lettuce saying, "More?" Then he would say, "Oh, giraffe!" When one would come over he would say, "All right..." and then gently hand it a piece of lettuce. Those giraffes are HUGE and have crazy long tongues, and a couple times they put his whole hand in their mouths. I probably would have been terrified when I was his age, but he was in heaven! We still talk about it and he laughs. :)

After the excitement of the giraffes, it was clear that Grayson was getting sleepy, so we transferred him to his stroller. We were planning to leave at that point, so he could take his nap on the drive home, but I really wanted to see the botanical gardens. I knew Grayson wouldn't be too excited by them, but I figured he might nap in his stroller while we checked it out. It was a bit of a hike to get up to the gardens, and Grayson definitely zonked out on the walk! He slept through the whole walk to, around, and from the gardens. It was kind of nice because it allowed Scott and I to have some "alone" grown-up time to celebrate our anniversary! Hey, you take what you can get! :)

By the time we finished with the gardens and made our way back to the zoo exit, Grayson was awake. He stayed awake the whole drive home, but fortunately he didn't fuss at all. We watched Finding Nemo in the car, which is now one of his favorites. We also discovered that he's really aware of what is happening because he started crying at the beginning when Nemo's mom is killed by the shark! We had to skip to the next scene! I think we'll be doing that from now on! Poor little boy! :(

We arrived back home around 4 pm, Scott went grocery shopping, I worked on unpacking, and Grayson hung out with me and ran off some more energy around the house! Thankfully he was as exhausted as we were because he fell asleep by 6:45! Personally, I felt like I had been hit by a bus! I think it was largely from the stress of the previous day, combined with all the walking and early mornings. It was great to end our anniversary weekend with pizza, The Voice, and a beer! Cheers to the start of our 7th year! :)