Westerville Reading Trip

Here, in travelogue format, are photos from our trip this past week to Columbus. We were there so Susan could do a reading/q&a session at the Westerville Public Library. We took full advantage of the trip to see Aunt Amy, Stu and Sue, and Kevin and Emily, hosted in absentia by Mom and Dad. We enjoyed our visit to Xenos Sunday morning, Kevin's pizza and pool party for his 22nd birthday (Happy Birthday, Kevin!), as well as a second trip to the Westerville Rec. Center pool, and a visit to the house where Emily lives on campus, followed by the Central Teaching she attends, and then a game of Settlers of Catan with two of her friends. Enjoyed the pleasant weather as well, and got to be there for the first good rain Columbus has had in a while. Stu and Sue fed us like visiting royalty and we all (Amy included!) had a great time hanging out with them. 

If you had to guess from this blog you'd think we spend 90% of our time at zoos. This is from a trip to the Columbus Zoo. They have an Australia & Indonesia area we'd never seen before, which includes a little boat ride through an area with exotic birds, baboons (baboons?) and a komodo dragon! (see below). This is a kangaroo area, where you got to see sleeping kangaroos up close, including one two-year-old who the docent says is their "problem child" because she likes to hug people. There was also a building providing a low-light tour of nocturnal animals including a cloud leopard, tiger quoll, tree kangaroo, some gliding mice and a fluffy black and white squirrel. This was followed by a sighting of a fuzzy koala rump. Being in permanent siesta they are well suited to the hot temperatures in Columbus.

There's that komodo dragon. Komodo dragons are extremely poisonous due to the nasty bacteria which live in their mouths. This is also in the Australia/Indonesia area.

Here's the old reptile house, which goes back to when I was a kid, though it's considerably snazzier now. Josh found the button you could press to hear an alligator growl loudly. He pressed the button then in surprise stepped back and sat on his rear end staring in amazement... and then pressed it again and again. :-)

Josh with some sort of swimming turtles

The reptile house again.

Stu coming to the reptiles, hat in hand.

The aquarium, which is just amazing. Sam's on the right.

Sam on a manatee statue.

A shark swims by Sam.

Stu admiring the fish.

Josh, admiring the fish at the Zoo.

When we first arrived at M&D's we found the stuff animals engaged in a game of poker.

First night in Worthington we went on a jammy walk. What fun!