Looking at Llamas

 The other day our friend posted these awesome pictures of him and his son looking at animals- since I'm always looking for places to take Miss C on field trips I was dying to know where they were. He told me that they went to The Old Maryland Farm. Cordelia and I made our way there today for a visit- because who doesn't love a farm with Llamas! The Farm is part of  Watkins Regional Park and this might become one of our favorite new places to go. They have nature trails, playgrounds, a train, carousel, farm, nature center and even camp grounds- maybe Brendon and I will have to take Miss C camping! 

 

We walked the totally wrong direction and found the Nature Center first- which is ok because I didn't even know it was there and we were happy to stumble upon it. Outside of the center they have a couple of different birds- birds that have been injured and can't survive in the wild. Cordelia recognized the owls, she pointed and said "hoot hoot" which was cool because she has only ever seen cartoon drawings of them I think. They also have one of the most interesting squirrel feeders I've ever seen. Cordelia was really excited to be able to watch them up close. She  would stand there, turn to me, put her finger over her mouth and say "shhhh" to remind me to be quiet and not scare them away.  

Inside they have more owls, snakes, bugs and a neat koi/ turtle pond, along with diffrent activity centers that we didn't get to look at much because they are for slightly older kids and Miss C just ran past them. When I was writing this post I did some looking at their website and learned that they also have classes and preschool groups at diffrent times during the week,  I think we are going to check one out soon.

The farm has rabbits, chickens, peacocks, ducks, sheep, llamas, cows, horses and a very friendly gift shop cat named Winky who sadly I didn't get a picture of.  

Did you know that when peacocks have their feathers fanned out they will shudder them every once in awhile. I'm not sure why (if you know please share!) but it makes the most unusual and interesting sound. 

I love this guys face! He looks like something from Jim Henson's Labyrinth. 

This nice guy walked up and let us pet him too- but he decided we weren't that interesting when he realized that we didn't have food. 

All these cool unusual (for her) animals and she was still really excited by the squirrels!  

Cordelia would wave and say "bye" every time I told her it was time to move on to the next animal. It made me a mushy mommy and I wish I had thought to record her doing it. Oh well, I will have to next time! Do you have any suggestions of awesome places to take a toddler in the D.C area?