Family Dinner and Charles Paddock Zoo- Atascadero, California

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I'm noticing Claire is starting to look more like me as she gets older!
Whenever we come into town, my grandparents make a special effort to come visit and see Landon. We love to see them, catch up and spend time together. When Grandpa Karl and Betsy visited, we went out to dinner at Taco Temple in Morro Bay. It is a Mexican/California Fusion restaurant and I absolutely loved the food. I ordered one taco and it came with a huge heaping pile of greens in a tangy cilantro dressing, freshly made chips and salsa, everything was delicious. Here was our pre-dinner picture of the Livengoods at our home:

On a different day, we picked up Claire from school and took Landon to the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero. It is a very small zoo which allowed Landon to just run around the whole thing, see all the animals, and still have energy to run to the park to swing on the swings!
Coin drop was thrilling!

His favorite features of the zoo seemed to be the coin drop and the lion fountain. I remember the lion fountain being really special to me when I was little, something about putting my head in the lion's mouth to get a drink is just thrilling! Landon liked it as well.

Close up of the coin drop

Lion fountain!
Cheating death to get a drink!

Landon liked the lemurs, monkeys, tiger, and barn animals. I was saddened to learn that the Asian sun bear that had always sat in the same spot had died. There were several exhibits under construction and animals moved around differently than the last time I was there. My favorite animal were the red pandas- they were some of the only ones really moving around, and there were two babies!

Flamingos mid-dance

We stayed until the zoo closed. When we came out, the flamingos were in an uproar. They were squawking and doing an interesting dance as a group. They were looking up at the sky, turning their heads right and left. Then they would flex and extend their necks and then parade around in a circle as a group. I'm guessing there was a hawk or some other predatory creature that they sensed and were worried about. It was incredibly interesting to watch. 

Obligatory trip to the swings after the zoo.
Aunt Claire is Landon's buddy!

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