Happy Day at Happy Hollow

Happy Hollow is a small zoo and amusement park in San Jose. We got a membership there and have enjoyed going several times. It's easy enough for me to take the kids on my own and I've done that a few times in addition to a couple of whole-family visits. We also went with Uncle Justin in August when he was visiting us for a few days on his way home from his job in China. The photos in this post came from a day when we met up with some of our friends. We got there early and did most of the rides before seeing any friends.

Our first stop was at this racetrack where the kids pedaled little carts around a track. They're allowed to go around three times.

We cut Holly off at one lap since it took her as long as the other kids' three laps. She didn't mind.

When we returned a week later with Justin, the "ride operator" wouldn't let Adah and Maggie go! He said they were too tall. We insisted that they'd done it just a few days before, but he was adamant. They were just skimming the height limit. It was a real disappointment after having done it so recently.  I guess the girl the first day wasn't paying close attention. (There was no line, so maybe she just didn't see the need to be a stickler. There was no line the second time either, but he was strict.)

Here they are in blissful ignorance of their gigantic statures that would prohibit any future rides.

After doing several rides, including our favorite, the Fruit Express mini-roller coaster, we went to the zoo area for an animal encounter. Zoo keeper Sean brought out several animals for us to meet. The first was this leopard gecko: 

Holly & Gunnar take a turn touching it. (Gunnar is in the white hat.)

I believe this is a ball python.

And here's an opossum. It was smelly!  Adah and Maggie were at the encounter also, but by the time the opossum came out they were too hot and had moved away to a shady spot. Holly and Gunnar stuck through the whole thing and got to touch all the animals and learn some fun facts. I'm sure Gunnar still remembers many of them. He has a great mind for animal facts.

Later in the afternoon we went to the bigger summer animal show. There were birds of prey that came swooping over the audience, a cute armadillo that looked like a cantaloupe when it was rolled up, a honey bear, a meerkat, this crocodile,

and a cute little joey (baby kangaroo).

We ended our visit where we began it: at the Carousel. Holly is still short enough that I have to stay near her during the ride, so I never managed to get any photos of Adah or Maggie, who always seemed to choose animals on the other side.

Even though this merry-go-round has all sorts of exotic, endangered, and even extinct (a triceratops) animals on it, Holly always chose a horse. Maggie always tried for the manatee or dolphin. Some of our other favorites are the bald eagle and the lemur.

 

For some reason, after our full day at Happy Hollow I thought it would be a good time to go to Target and buy school supplies. I chose some fun crayons for Holly so she wouldn't feel too left out, but then she continually showed me something new and asked, "Can I have this for my birthday?" She was being agreeable and not having a fit about me not buying her everything right then, but she was interrupting me about every 90 seconds! It was really hard to keep track of the three big kids with their three different lists. Of course, Adah and Maggie could read their own lists, but they still needed help finding things on the shelves and making the most economical choices. It was a bit overwhelming for me. Lesson learned: next year leave Holly home or take Damon with us.

Still, they were all so excited about getting geared up for school and we came right home and began sorting everything and packing backpacks...which is where Damon found us when he got home from work.