My friends all tell me...it's all happening at the zoo...

...I do believe it. I do believe it's true. (Simon & Garfunkel)

That's right! We took a trip out to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro on Saturday. A fun trip and a small side adventure down the Pottery Highway (NC 705) - more on that later.

As always the entire flickr set is here. Over 140 photos!

But up first, photos from the NC Zoo!

The North Carolina Zoo is split into two sections - North America and Africa. It takes about five hours to see everything, obviously with younger kids - you'll want to add more time. For adults, admission is only $10 and it's $1 less with AAA.

Say hello to Mr. Gator.

I certainly wouldn't want to wake up this guy from his nap.

The sea lions were a popular attraction on Saturday.

My favorite areas of the NC Zoo is the Prairie (home to Elk and Bison) and the African Grasslands (more on that later). The prairie didn't disappoint as we found this elk with an amazing rack!

Just prior to the entrance of the Aviary are the pink flamingos.

The Aviary has great tropical plants and birds. You can spend a good hour or so inside taking photos and practicing on these types of subjects.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier, the other area I really enjoy at the zoo is the African Grasslands. This is home to rhinos, elephants, gazelles, ostriches, antelopes, and more.

That concludes the zoo tour. If you made it this far down, here's some of the roadtrip home. We took NC 159, US 220 Alternate, NC 705, NC 24/27, US 15/501, US 1, I-440 home.

We spent sometime in Seagrove which is home to a lot of pottery shops and a lot of signs.

Does a three pair of 220's win me anything?

If you are traveling through US 220A on a weekend, stop at the Jugtown Cafe just north of Seagrove. Pretty good food at relatively inexpensive pricing.

NC 705, known as the Pottery Highway, is a very pleasant drive, and I think the photo below shows why.

Finally, we stopped at the small Moore County town of Robbins. It's a small town typical of Central North Carolina.

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