After church, Mom and Dad had a surprise for little girls. Much to Olivia's frustration, we wouldn't tell them our afternoon plans, but as we got closer she figured it out for herself. Our destination was the London Zoo at Regent's Park. Quite honestly, the zoo is pretty sad in every respect but price where it truly is the leader of the pack. It is old, tired and inferior in variety, animal care and physical condition to the zoos with which we are more familiar in Portland and St. Louis. Still, a monkey is a monkey, and the girls were excited to see plenty of them. They also enjoyed the gorillas, Bactrian (two-humped) camels, the giraffes, the otters, the pygmy hippos, the tigers and lion, the pigs, the wild dogs and the parrots. They really liked the butterfly house, and Meredith and Cecily were thrilled when the keeper worked with them to allow a butterfly to land on their fingers. Strangely enough, the zoo doesn't have a number of the standard animals one expects at zoos, such as elephants. London Zoo does operate another larger zoo outside London at Whipsnade where a larger collection of some 2500 animals is based. Getting to it, however, is a transportation nightmare which we and all but the most ardent of zoological tourists are not equipped. Given that the zoo seems to keep the best of its collection locked away where no one can see it, is it any wonder they are under financial strain?
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