Frankfurt Zoo and German Schwimbad

I just wanted to put a little something up in my own place about the last couple outings we made before leaving Rachel's place. If you haven't already, you can read my always-one-step-ahead sister's account here.

On Wednesday morning Rachel took Trey to work in the car while I wrestled the two babies to the ground and got them dressed. No small feat since Ellis is in this stage where he *hates* having his diaper changed, getting dressed, or in anyway interrupted in his explorations of the world. None the less, we were all bundles up and ready to go when Rachel returned with rations for the day.
We headed for Frankfurt and managed to make it to the parking garage of the zoo directly. We had to circle the parking garage a few times but eventually parked and got headed in the right direction. Silas was determined to walk the entire way, since he had napped in the car and wasn't one bit tired.
The first part of the zoo was filled with daffodils which Silas was obliged to smell every one of. The first two enclosures were empty, but the third had a couple sun bears. Silas liked to watch the cranes, as they were very close and separated by only a small barrier.
Next were the tigers. They were fun to watch as they fought for a tattered soccer ball. A little less entertaining, because you begin to feel heart sick for the poor animals, was when one of them started pacing back and forth in the bamboo along the fence. Silas happened to love this form of peek-a-boo however. Every time the cat would disappear into the bamboo Silas would put his hands up and "say" "where do it go." And every time it emerged, he would smile excitedly and point.
The bat house was next. The name is misleading as there was only one small area with bats. It was actually a nocturnal animal house. Which was pretty cool. My favorite was the prehensile tailed porcupine, although Silas and Ellis enjoyed a super speedy jumping rodent.
We meandered through the House of Exotics. Silas was enamored with the diving, swimming, jumping, splashing penguins.
We saw zebras, flamingos, giraffes, donkeys, rhinos, and goats. But we also saw double wattled cassowarys, vicunas, and okapis.
Another big hit with the under two crowd was the hippo. She was swimming around, putting her head in and out of the water so the peek-a-boo factor was in play. At one point she stuck her rear end out of the water to poop on the wall of the pool then flicked in around with her tail. Afterwards she splashed her head in and out of the water with her mouth open that made it seem like she was laughing. Toilet humor. No wonder the babies loved her. (I'm the one recounting though).
In general the habitats for the animals were adequate, and not too depressing. Although the great apes always seem a bit sad, even more so here as there habitat seemed to be the most outdated. Fortunately, the zoo was in the midst of building a new place for them, so maybe they'll be a bit happier soon.

On Thursday, and again on Friday because it was so much fun, we went to the Bellamar. Although it took us a while to figure out how to get in the dressing room, once we were in, it was quite nice. There were five or six pools of varying depths and temperatures, a couple slides, and several fountains to play in. Ellis was terrified of the water at first, since he is a shower baby at home, but he soon warmed up and was splashing and smiling right along with his cousin.
I took Silas down a water slide that ended up being quite fast and as I neared the bottom I had the realization that Silas and I were going to go underwater when we landed. That terrified me for an instant, but Silas thought the speed and the giant splash were great. So much so that he spent the rest of the first visit signing "again." I jammed the middle toe on my left foot at the landing of one of the slide runs. (It is still various shades of purple and it still hurts, Rachel.) But all in all it was a fun time, and will be fun in the summer when we can splash around outside too!