Chicago vacation day 3 - September 16th

This was one of my favorite days of our vacation because we got to go the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's free and it's WONDERFUL...one of my favorite places. I have no idea how many times Joacim and I went there, but I know it was at least once or twice every visit. The only thing that was a bit of a downer was that they are doing some serious reconstruction of the pond, which ended up closing off our favorite bridge. It'll be open again next spring, so I guess we'll just have to make another trip up there!
Our first stop was at The Farm-In-the-Zoo. They have cows, goats, rabbits, chickens and a vegetable garden. Joacim and I had actually never been there before, so it was new for all of us. Here are some of the dairy cows they have there...very well-taken care of...

Next stop was at the Regenstein primate exhibit. This opened a few years ago, and it's fabulous!!! Here's Izzy and Joacim having some fun together in front of the gorillas

And here is the most disgruntled gorilla I've seen....I must admit it was intimidating when he was looking at us this way...

Just some snapshots of Izzy and me....



Checking out the kitties....

And the piggies...

This little guy wasn't a part of the zoo exhibit, but he seemed to want to be included....

She was VERY curious about the fishies....

Here she is with her Pappa in the one of the exhibits...

Meerkats are so cute...

This poor little bear. Ever since we've been coming here he's been this way. He had surgery on his jaw several years ago, but it caused his tongue to stick out. Doesn't seem to bother him, but he sure does look funny...

She was also curious about the seals...

I think she was most interested in the polar bear

We let Izzy walk around a lot because it didn't seem fair to have her in the sroller all the time. Sometimes, however, she would get a little sidetracked, so I'd have to chase her because, as you've seen before, she LOVES to be chased.

And she loves water, although she wasn't quite able to figure out that this was for drinking and not playing :)

Here we are watching the bears. Not such a great photo because of me in the reflection.

And Izzy and her belly button

And she finally sleeps....

After our trip to the zoo, we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to my friend Carrie's house for dinner. Carrie and I were roommates in college, and she lives out in the suburbs. But on our way there, we drove under the El...I've NEVER driven under one of these streets, and I felt so touristy but it was cool!

It took us FOREVER to get out there..it was rush hour, and there was an accident...need I say more? But once we got there, we had a great dinner. The kids at first, and here's a shot of Carrie's kidlets at the table...

Izzy was such a social little butterfly. She was playing with all the toys, rolling around on the floor with a matchbox car, running up their stairs...she was EVERYWHERE. And she still loves being chased..by anyone. Luckily, Carrie was willing to play the game.

All-in-all, it was a great, relaxing day