Happy Hollow

A recent post on Emily's blog made me recall in horror that I have not yet made my final posting from my recent US visit to Mountain View to see Ella and her new brother who as born what is now 6 weeks ago ... and I might add see Emily and Greg and do a lot of travelling for academic purposes.

On the day that I flew back to Australia we had one last big expedition to the San Jose Happy Hollow Park and Zoo which is a very pleasant place for young kids. It comprises part amusement park with lots of rides and play equipment and part zoo with lots of smallish animals, though I did spot one Leopard. Ella had lots of fun, but was also nervous about tackling certain rides, especially the Carousel featuring endangered species animals. We tried every ploy in the book to coax her to sit on one of the animals or even one of the ordinary seats for very young people, but she was adamant that she didn't want to go. That's a bit strange because she went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland last year.

However, she enjoyed various other aspects as shown below. The first picture shows Ella at a petting (or should it be patting) session with various animals. Here she shows no fear of a rat. I apologise for not having rotated the picture, but believe me the file copy is rotated the right way - the same applies to the last picture.

And Ella was happy looking at the goats.

Or sliding a large tube in the amusement park.

 Or sitting with grandma opposite to me on a see-saw

Or crawling over steel replicas of various animals.

 So it was a fun day for all ... well not Flynn whose only achievement was drinking a lot of milk.

AS