Living Desert Reserve

So, yesterday, as promised, we took the grandson up to the Living Desert Reserve to see the trains.  Only, we got there so early, they weren't running.  The LDR has a huge miniature train exhibit, complete with cities, farms, mountains, and a Grand Canyon!  It's really incredible.  Some of the volunteers from the local miniature train club were there doing some maintenance on the trains and little buildings.  You can see the size of the exhibit from the top photo.  And, the big adventure begins!  The LDR rents out the little strollers, which come with a strap.  Unfortunately, every time we stopped, we had to unstrap Ben, let him out, and then strap him back in!  He finally learned to do it himself (he's almost 3...in February)...We stopped to look at the leopards, since they were both out.  They have a male and female and they were playing with each other.  Grandpa got some good photos of them, but I was holding the munchkin.

WHY is it that when you take your kids or grandkid to some place special, their favorite thing is some oddball object?  We used to take our children to the San Diego zoo, where they liked the free-roaming chickens and baby chicks the best!  Here, Ben liked this little statute of a wart hog.  See piggy's tail?  PULL piggy's tail!...go figure!

To be continued...