Last week while Kathy (Grandma B) was visiting, she and I decided to take the kids to CALM. CALM stands for CAlifornia Living Museum. It is a zoo and garden hosting only plants and animals native to California. It also acts as a sanctuary for animals who have been permanently disabled and are no longer able to survive in the wild.
We went early hoping to beat the heat. It was a great morning. We saw lots of cool animals and learned some things too.
The reptile house was closed for the day, but they had an employee standing outside of it with a few different things for the kids to see, and touch.
This little guy (who was actually not so little) is a Great Horned Owl. The largest owl that lives in California.
He was really cool. Since it was the middle of the day one might have expected the owls to be asleep, but not this guy. He was swinging on his little perch "talking" up a storm as we approached him. Every time he would "hoot" Cameron would say, "Who's that?" We all agreed that he was one of our favorite animals of the day.
Another favorite of the day was the petting zoo. There were mostly barn animals in the petting area, but that didn't make it any less fun.
The kids weren't shy about letting the goats eat right off of their palms.
This little black pygmy goat was SO cute. Cammie was trying to get a kiss.
We stopped in the shade to cool off, rehydrate, and of course get a couple more pictures, before moving on.
Cammie was laughing at Grandma B who was being extra silly.
You can't have a "California Native" zoo in Bakersfield without a Roadrunner.
He (or she, I'm not sure which) was really cool too. He ran right over to the glass to get a good look at us.
One of my favorite attractions was the Bobcat exhibit. The cat was sitting in the shade right up against the glass. You'd almost never get to see one of these this close in the wild unless you were very lucky, of perhaps very unlucky.
Amazing and so beautiful.
The two things that the kids had been looking forward to seeing the most were Snakes an Coyotes. Unfortunately the reptile house was closed, and there were no Coyote's to be seen that day. We did get to see lots of foxes though.
There were Bears too.
The kids wanted to play on the playground for a bit, so Kathy and I took the opportunity to just sit down for a few minutes.
Last but not least was a stop at the porcupine pen. I think we all agreed that they were about the favorite of the day.
It was so much fun taking our little animals to see some actual animals.
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