Järvzoo!

Yesterday we took a little trip north to Järvsö to visit the Järvzoo, an outdoor zoo of sorts of Sweden's natural animal inhabitants.  The park reminded me of Wildlife Prairie Park outside Peoria, IL, for those of you familiar with it.  It was about a 3 hour drive, and thankfully Toby did very well in the car.  He and Tyson picked out some books and toys together before we left, and they turned out to be just the thing to keep him busy on the rides there and back since he decided not to nap in the car.

It was a beautiful fall-like day and we really enjoyed being outside in the mountainous more-northern part of Sweden.  The park itself was a 3km walkway loop up and through a tree-covered mountain, with the animal enclosures spread throughout.  Tyson and I were most excited about seeing the musk oxen and moose respectively, but unfortunately, neither made much of a display.  However, the reindeer, bear, wolverines, and owls more than made up for it.  The reindeer we saw were forest reindeer - a bit taller than most reindeer.  The brown bear and her 3 cubs were amazing to see, even though they were asleep the whole time.  Toby was most taken by the "bow bahr" since one of his favorite books right now is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See.  But what he'll remember most are the owls.  He has many books with owls and makes the cutest little "hoot" sound, which he used to try to communicate with the owls yesterday.  He also waved bye-bye to them and blew them kisses when we moved on to the next enclosure.  What Tyson & I found most entertaining were the wolverines.  They are sweet-looking creatures until you see how fast they move and how sharp and long their claws are.  Quite incredible!
We finished our trip with a stop at Uppsala's new Pizza Hut.  Swedes seem to be enjoying the very different pizza it offers compared to all the other pizza in Sweden.  We certainly enjoyed the taste from home  :)