Spring Break is for the Animals

I didn't intend on staying away so long but what with Dracen missing the whole week of school before Easter with that nasty stomach bug and then Spring Break last week, it just sort of happened. This was the first time in three years we didn't go away for Spring Break and also maybe the first time that the entire state of North Carolina (apparently) was all on break at the same dang time. 

Usually many of the other counties have their break earlier and we always have ours the week after Easter but I'm guessing since Easter showed up so early this year, all the kids in all the counties were out during the same week. And I'm pretty sure at least 90 percent of them were at the North Carolina Zoo on Monday because I decided to take the boys on a little road trip (just the three of us) there to kick off our Spring Break and then after the two hour drive there realized right away that it was not the brightest idea I'd ever had because holy-crap-at all-the-people!

It was so crowded that when we left, we saw that the parking lots had eventually all filled up so they allowed cars to park along the side of the road and finally had to turn people away because they'd reached capacity. Listen. I'm not a curmudgeon and I don't dislike people but that was way too much togetherness for an introvert such as I am. I was physically and mentally drained by the end of that day and then of course, the boys bickered and shoved each other around all day which evoked a few dirty looks our way. 

Finding an opening big enough to squeeze the zoom lens through was not the easiest task but I did manage to get a few good shots of some of the animals...

I can't be sure but I think this baboon was telling us all to get the heck out of his grill and his habitat. Or maybe he was perturbed that nobody had cleaned up all the piles of poo yet. Thankfully, they were behind a glass enclosure.

None of these baboon guys appeared to be appreciating the crowd. I felt their pain.

I thought the chimps all appeared to be deep-thinking worriers. Bless their hearts. I could empathize. 

And the gorilla? Well, I thought he just seemed a little disgusted by the whole lot of us...

The elephants were all smart enough to stay pretty far away in the distance. The zoom lens had to work extra hard to get any shots of them. 

The lazy lions appeared to be completely unfazed and unamused by the whole Sprink Break frenzy ordeal. Gotta love 'em.

The dinosaurs were definitely the most fierce and intimidating of all the species. Or at least they would have been, had they actually been alive and real. 

The Dracenator gave them all a good run for their money though...

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Spring Break recap tomorrow when I will tell you all about our little trip to the drive through animal park. Because you just really haven't lived until you've had three emus, a zebra and a water buffalo all poking their heads into your car window for feed at the same time...