Off to the zoo!
Aug. 8th, 2010 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsWe took the kids to the zoo on Monday. You know, for a "staycation" where I'm supposed to be staying off the ankle, we're going to places that demand a lot of walking around. But the trick is that I have a cane now, and as long as I'm walking on level surfaces with the ankle brace on, there's little risk of my torquing it in a way that will make the injury worse. So, off we go.
First stop, the penguins, right about feeding time. A seagull hung at the edge of the mob and succeeded in getting at least one herring while the penguins squawked and screeched at it to get clear. Meanwhile, ragged crows looking not out-of-place in a Poe story hung at the edge, waiting their turn.
We headed up around the outer edge of the zoo, passing through the North American animals exhibit as we did so. The eagles were very serious looking, the bear had the expected ginormous claws, and the porcupine looked depressed. In fact, many of the carnivores looked bored, or depressed, or expressed some combination of well-fed-but-imprisoned ennui.
We came around to the Australian animals, passing through the parakeets exhibit where the girls were encouraged to feed the birds with little sticks of seeds, a dollar apiece, which was totally worth it to watch their expressions. More fun in hard to find for such a low price in this economy.
The red panda was gorgeous, although hard to see. I know it's not really a panda, although that photo is apparently getting surprising hits on Flickr for its title.
We stopped for lunch. We brought, given that food at the park is expensive, and then made our way clockwise through several asian bird and animal exhibits. We saw the Japanese mountain goat, pink flamingos before coming around to the Africa exhibits, including Grants gazelles, hippopotamus, macaque, and sleepy but pretty African dogs. The orangutans had learned that covering their heads made them feel cooler, and many had learned the power of the blanket to give them some darkness and privacy against the prying eyes of visitors throughout the day. The elephants looked bored, like many of the smarter animals.
We stayed until the zoo closed.
Many more photos can be found at my Flickr account under my Woodland Park Zoo 2010 collection.
First stop, the penguins, right about feeding time. A seagull hung at the edge of the mob and succeeded in getting at least one herring while the penguins squawked and screeched at it to get clear. Meanwhile, ragged crows looking not out-of-place in a Poe story hung at the edge, waiting their turn.
We came around to the Australian animals, passing through the parakeets exhibit where the girls were encouraged to feed the birds with little sticks of seeds, a dollar apiece, which was totally worth it to watch their expressions. More fun in hard to find for such a low price in this economy.
We stopped for lunch. We brought, given that food at the park is expensive, and then made our way clockwise through several asian bird and animal exhibits. We saw the Japanese mountain goat, pink flamingos before coming around to the Africa exhibits, including Grants gazelles, hippopotamus, macaque, and sleepy but pretty African dogs. The orangutans had learned that covering their heads made them feel cooler, and many had learned the power of the blanket to give them some darkness and privacy against the prying eyes of visitors throughout the day. The elephants looked bored, like many of the smarter animals.
We stayed until the zoo closed.
Many more photos can be found at my Flickr account under my Woodland Park Zoo 2010 collection.
