The Ljubljana Zoo

It was a picturesque day in Ljubljana yesterday and we decided we would make up our date with the zoo.  The walk was longer than we had thought (almost three miles), but beautiful.  The road to the zoo winds along the southern edge of Tivoli Park, with quaint little neighborhoods on one side and paths leading up into wooded hills on the other.  Where the sun hits, there were patches of purple and white flowers in full bloom and bees buzzing from one flower to the next.  The zoo itself sits back in the trees and hills of Tivoli and is as much a walk through a forest as it is a zoo.

We met our friends Cindy and Don there, who were quite amused at a visit to the zoo with our crew.  We've decided our kids need more animal education, as they shouted out random animals at whatever they saw:  at the sea lions, "It's a BIG FISH," at the mules, "Look, COWS," and so on.  We're sure they thoroughly confused the Slovenian children who are learning animal names in English.

The kiddos had a blast.  There is a petting zoo with goats and little pot-bellied pigs who roll over on their sides to have their bellies scratched...after a brief moment of tentativeness, they made it their goal to pet every animal at least twice.  There was also a pen with baby chicks and Celia and Rosetta each got to hold one (Sy was disqualifed after trying to grab one by its head).

Once again, we ended our day sitting outside with pizza and a beer.  After logging all those miles, we figured we deserved it.  Life is good.