Columbus Zoo!

This weekend we are visiting Stu and Sue and Kevin and Emily. The first order of business Saturday morning was a trip to the zoo. We got there went it opened at 9 AM and still were far from the first to enter. When we left at 12:30 the parking lot was full as far as the eye could see, and the line of cars waiting to enter was at least a quarter of a mile. (Though Stu points out many or most of those people might have been arriving for the water park.) 

So we--the four of us plus Stu, Sue and Kevin--arrived at 9 AM and our native guides showed us how to take a shuttle out to the vast new Africa exhibit which features giraffes, lions (by themselves), cheetahs (again, separated from the rest), wildebeests, Thompson's gazelles, and various other smaller things.  

And at 9 AM, you could get in a tiny line to feed the giraffes!

This will give you some idea how big the giraffe is!

Here's another of the many giraffes, wandering around at the edge of the plain. Notice how few leaves there are below giraffe height.

You could get very close to the lions:

The cheetah kept peering around the visitors to get a view of the wildebeests and gazelles on the plain beyond!

After the Africa exhibit we wandered through North America (wolverines, bears, cougars, reindeer, song birds, beavers, otters, and a HUGE bald-eagle nest with three eagles), we went to Asia (by way of the elephants, which were Josh's favorite). There's too much to list from Asia, but here are a few highlights:

A very active Amur leopard pacing his enclosure vigorously

These HUGE BATS were called something like "flying foxes". Very were very, very large.

Josh, peering at a monitor. Can't recall what kind of monitor. Not a hall monitor, though we were in a hall.

Josh and the python.

Josh and Sam peering at the monkey. Also very active, and right next to the window. Susan tells me the males had very bright blue genitalia. There are debates about complexity and evolution, but rarely do people pay enough attention to evolution and perversely extravagant diversity.

They had a new ride, a river boat ride through a bunch of animatronic dinosaurs. Shamelessly faddish, sure, to show extinct animals at a zoo, but the boys loved it. :-) The dinosaurs were real enough from a three-year-old's perspective that Josh definitely did not want to get too close. Here's the view down the little river:

One of the many moving dinosaurs

This is the view of the river ride from a bridge above. In this section several exotic dinosaurs spit a stream of water at the travelers

The ride ends as the boats pass underneath a gigantasaurus

After a stop by the gorillas...

(unemployment's high among primates in Ohio)

...we walked through the aquarium. Here you can see one of the smallish (3-4') hammerheads:

Josh observing a manatee

Here are Josh and Sam playing on a brass statue of a hammerhead shark: 

And here are our kind companions:

And evening and morning and the first day in the garden. More later...