Little Liza Jane: Going to the Zoo, How about you?

One of my favorite things in life are summers in Oregon. I haven't been back to visit my family in a few years and was fortunate enough to get to go this July. I stayed for a week and my Aunt Vicki was kind enough to tote me around - much like she did when I was younger. Unfortunately for the blogosphere my camera was a tiny bit on the dead side...but I did manage to take some pictures on other cameras and compile a majority of them.

If you haven't been to Oregon, I highly recommend it. In my humble opinion it is one of the most beautiful places on earth...and not just because I am from there. :) The days are a warm, but not oppressive, 80 degrees, and the nights go into the upper 60s. It is absolutely beautiful. I took quite a few pictures, so I think I will break them up into a couple of different posts.

So, without further ado, I present you with the Oregon Zoo!

To this day one of my favorite exhibits is the Polar Bear exhibit. As a kid, the image above freaked me out...it is in the ceiling as you are coming down the ramp to enter the underground part of the Polar Bear den. Despite my mother assuring me that the bear would not come through the roof, I was not convinced and safely skirted around the ominous bear paw.

The Polar Bear exhibit...this guy is tuckered out. We went in earlier in the day and he was swimming laps right by the window. Then he decided to take a happy nappy. So cute, and I loved that he laid right by the window so that visitors could get a peak.

This sign cracked me up, simply because they moved the penguins to the exhibit right next to the Polar Bears while the Penguin house was being renovated. Nice.

Just a few of the elephants at the zoo, the most famous being Packy. So apparently Packy is 40, but for some reason I had in my head that Packy was a baby when I was a kid. Either way, he was one of the zoo's feature exhibits and they even made Packy pops...elephant shaped suckers. When I went back on this trip I asked for Packy pops and they looked at me like I had three heads...sigh...it's hell getting old.

My Aunt Vic's favorite part of the zoo, the Lorikeet exhibit. This wasn't there "back in my day," but you go in and you can pay a dollar for a cup of nectar and you can feed the Lorikeets...there are over 50 in there. It's a tiny bit creepy because they land on you, which if you grew up with my mother is a fate worse than death. Despite this, the whole thing was super cool...except that they fire at will when they have to pee...eww.

Another fabulous feature of the Oregon Zoo is their trains. They have about 4 different trains that travel around the zoo complex and up to the Rose Garden and the Japanese Gardens. So we took the train and stopped at the Rose Garden which is a feature exhibit of Portland, city of Roses.