Dan and I decided to take Evan to the North Carolina Zoo while everyone else in the family was working on Friday.
The Zoological Park is on 500 acres in the Uwharrie Mountains in central NC. (Asheboro, not Ashville) It is an open zoo with no small concrete cages. Animals are in natural habitats with five miles of hiking trails joining the exhibits. Thankfully, there were trolleys to hop on and off, although the best views are on the paths. It was a warm, sunny day with flowers in bloom and trees for shade. Many of the animals were traditional zoo but fun to watch them in open areas.
The Lemurs were being introduced into a new exhibit. I wasn’t familiar with the Lemur, but Evan knew immediately about them because of King Julien XIII in the Madagascar movies. We learned they are not related to monkeys, cannot hang by their long tails and are native only to Madagascar.


The Polar Bears are the “main attraction” right now at the zoo. Nikita, a male from the Kansas City Zoo, was introduced in March to Anana, the zoo’s resident female. It is breeding season so lots of hope for a baby bear in November or December. Polar Bears are threatened with only 60 in captivity and a 50% mortality among babies born. The exhibit was awesome, with a cold indoor area. The pool had underwater viewing, but the bears were more interested in each other than swimming.

Evan and Dan by the always interesting Pink Flamingos.

Evan making friends with a chimp.

We each enjoyed a slice of surprisingly delicious pizza and Evan had a soft drink in a bear cup.

Evan took this picture of me—looks like I’m being attacked by a plant!

Fun day. We headed back to our camp spot at Jordan Lake State Park early because tomorrow is Adam’s Regatta.