Saturday, September 02, 2006

Talk about a zoo!

We went to the zoo today and it was, well, a zoo! We lucked out and found a great parking spot. As we were leaving I signaled to a family in a van to follow us to nab the spot ~ but as we were driving back into town we saw cars parked literally for a mile down the road.
This trip was better than the last one because it wasn’t as hot as it was last year. But I still was pretty tired of toting around my camera by the time we were done. There were strollers as far as the eye could see, people standing cheek-to-jowl at every exhibit where there was any animal activity.
But, the animals were fairly active, so it was fun.
I learned from last trip that some animals are not worth trying to photograph. Like the wild cats hiding in the shade. Their camouflaged coats work very, very well.
But we did get some interesting photos of the Lynx that was up against the window in the Asian exhibit. It had been sleeping most of the day, but when we arrived it took exception to L, stood up and gave him an ears-back look. A tiny monkey about the size of Ls hand was up against the window in one exhibit and we caught some cute shots of it, although the lighting was a bit iffy.
A liked the bats. The fruit bats were super active as we arrived just after they were fed. I was fascinated by how they drank water out of the bowl, but when I pulled out my camera, they all found something else to do.
We came home with a big bag of popcorn and a pound and a half of fudge.
I like being close enough to go on a day trip to the zoo without it being a big deal. This is the first time I have lived close enough to a city where I can just decide one night “let’s go to the zoo” and make the trip the next day. It still seems like quite a luxury, even after living here for five years.
We also still have tickets to Lagoon we need to use. But I don’t think we will use them this weekend. If you think the zoo is a zoo on Labor Day weekend, you don’t even want to consider going to an amusement park.

4 comments:

Cindy Lee said...

I love the zoo! I'm from Houston and they have an awesome one - I was very spoiled living there, haven't been to a zoo in over 10 years - maybe we can go to the Omaha one sometime! Great, great photos! Glad to hear you all had a great time!

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a fun time at the zoo---that is a FABULOUS picture of the lynx!!! We went to the zoo a few weeks ago and I was SOOO excited about the new big cats habitats but they were all hiding in the shade, so I'm jealous you got to see at least one!

Anonymous said...

What a great day you had, we femember every visit we ever made to a zoo, they are so rare. I love the giraffes at Hogle Zoo. One ate a leaf from my hand last time we were there. There was a pretty new baby giraffe and he was so cute.

Karen said...

A penguin shot! I loves me some penguins.