St. Louis Zoo

 After the Cathedral, we decided we were ready to bear the heat. We headed out to the St. Louis Zoo. The zoo is free, which is pretty cool, until you realize that a bottle of water there is $7. 

Leah is happiest with a map, so she was pretty thrilled to guide us around. We saw many different animals, but their favorite was, by far, the hippos. These guys just swam around the perimeter of their pool the entire time we were there. The girls thought it was awesome. 

 This Sun Bear was adorable. 

 It was right about here that Juliet fell and started a pattern of falling every ding dong day for our entire trip on the sidewalk. I can't count how many times over the past 3 weeks I've picked a horizontal Juliet off the side walk after falling. Walking is hard. 

 The other big hit from this zoo was the butterfly house. They so badly wanted to touch a butterfly even though there are signs everywhere saying "DO NOT TOUCH THE BUTTERFLIES". At the very end, this injured guy flew onto my dress and I was able to move him to Leah's hands before putting him back on a plant. We didn't touch his wings. Juliet wanted to "hold" him like Leah did, but then got a little scared. She said she doesn't like when bigger insects move. Haha. 

 We ended up with a picture of Boo and the butterfly on a branch. 

 I think I was the most scared I've ever been in my entire life right before we went into the penguin house. There was a line because they only let a certain about of people in at a time. Leah and I were finishing our ice cream. Juliet had already finished hers and was walking on the rocks that lined the walkway into the exhibit. When they opened the doors, I called for Juliet and she didn't answer. I just started screaming her name and after what seemed like forever she appeared. She had walked all the way back to the start of the line and then back again. She was probably only "gone" for 45 seconds, but it was absolutely terrifying.  

 The Penguin House was very cool. The penguins were close enough that you could reach out and actually touch some of them as they were swimming. Though there were signs everywhere telling you not to. We didn't. But it was nice to see them that close. 

 You can see that the enclosure is only a little higher than the top of Leah's head. The penguins would jump out and swim in this water. 

 The merry-go-round was a hit. 

 As were the misters. It was hot. 

 On the way out we saw a guy trying to see Solar Eclipse glasses for $20 each. I was thankful I bought them in advance and spent $7 for 4 of them and also got a book about the eclipse.