London turns 9

London has been counting down his birthday for a long time now.  The poor kid is last in our family's lineup of birthdays so he has to suffer through watching everyone else get their presents and birthday meals.  Since his real birthday is on a Monday, a school day, we decided to celebrate on Saturday instead.

We've been promising him a surprise trip - something to do with animals - for a while so he was virtually bursting with anticipation come Saturday morning.  After our waffle breakfast, and the opening of presents (a bike and a watch were the main presents), we piled in the car to head out to Northwest Trek.

On his new bike.

This is a wildlife park associated with the zoo, but with a different, wilder side.  Located out in the country a bit, Northwest Trek is a combination zoo and drive-through safari featuring animals found in the Pacific Northwest.

We weren't really sure what to expect, but found a totally cool experience.  We started by visiting some of the birds of prey found in the area - Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, owls, vultures, etc.  These were all birds that had been injured in the wild and so were living their existence at the park.  Very cool to see these raptors up close and personal.

We had tickets for the 2:00 tram tour and so piled on board for a guided tour through 5,000+ acres of open territory which is home to more northwest creatures like moose, big horn sheep, elk, and bison.  The first few minutes of the tour netted no sightings of animals and Stevie and I were beginning to think the tour would be a dud, but then we started spotting animals all over the place.  Some were tucked away in the woods, but others were right next to the road - some even in the road!  It was totally cool.  Stevie was really excited to see a bison, but I liked it best when a moose walked right toward the tram and then around the back of it to stand and watch us.

Could have petted this one!

One large moose walking toward our tram.

Are we watching him or is he watching us?

After our hour tour in the wilderness, we finished the day by seeing more animals that were thankfully not included in the open tram tour: bears, bobcats, wolves, lynx.  And then another section had skunks, beavers, wolverines, otters, etc.  This was a really neat place, especially on this beautiful fall day.

London's celebration continued at home with his favorite dinner (salmon) and cake (in the shape of a watch which was one of his presents).

Of course we couldn't ignore London's actual birthday so the kid got two days of celebration with another special dinner and dessert on Monday and more presents (from family).

Happy birthday Jimmy!