The "un"fair

We wanted to do something special for Jake before Sam gets here, so we planned to go to the Greenwood County Agricultural Fair on Saturday.  One would think that with said title there would be animals, or at least plants or flowers, but apparently one would be wrong. We arrived, paid $10, and found nothing but a carnival.  We did manage to go see some miniature horses tethered to a pole walking around in a circle for "Pony Rides"...$5 for 6 laps around a 12 foot circle.  We just looked.

So, we went to plan B and headed to the Greenville Zoo.  We should have done this in the first place - they did have animals there.  Jake got to see elephants, lions, monkeys, and giraffes.  He especially loved getting face to face with the snakes in the reptile building.  He loved making the animal sounds, and was so excited when he saw a gibbon that he started thumping his chest like the gorilla in his Eric Carle book.  Gibbon, gorilla, close enough I say.  We'll have to make this a more frequent spot to visit - the zoo is adjacent to a large park with covered playgrounds and is filled with large, old trees so there is a lot of shade.

The big entrance

The "un"fair

(because you had to pay to do anything inside) 

Looking at the mini horses

On to the real animals. Elephants!

Fascinating.

These were some really cool lions.

Probably the coolest thing about this zoo - they have little steps built into the rails for little ones to stand on and see over the rail (he's standing on the step next to Mommy here).  Great idea to let them see on their own.