Latest trip down South - Part 2

Before we start with round two, here's a shot that Mom took the evening we arrived. Dad picked us up from the airport and brought us to Mom's house, where she had set the table so prettily, and made a nice meal for us, Auntie Claire, Bill, and Dad. I love all the green in this picture! We're a bit color-deprived up here at the moment. The snow is almost gone, and there is brown everywhere. Anxiously awaiting green!


So where were we? ZOO! Auntie Claire, the boys and I and my friend Heidi headed to the Audubon Zoo one beautifully sunny day.


Tortoise eating banana.

White tiger glaring.


Bear perched atop log. LOOK at the claws.


Snake!

Iguana, and....

baby and mama orangutan. Coincidentally, one of my favorite songs by The Iguanas is Orangutan!


Chillaxin' on the komodo dragon.


Auntie Claire, Andy, Sam, and Heidi by a statue.

CRAWFISH!!


More to come....

Calgary Zoo and Happy Birthday Claire

We went to the zoo today. The feeling of driving to the zoo and needing to remember to call my sister felt familiar, and sure enough, I just looked back and went went to the zoo last year on her birthday. So a Happy 25th Birthday to Claire. Wow - she's getting old! :o)

A quick trivia question to get things rolling. This is how I started the day; where was I and what was I ordering? "Yes, I'd like two large double doubles" (You may need to live or have lived in Canada to answer this.)

So here we are at the zoo for an opening stand-next-to-this-tree-and-hug-your-brother shot.


The Bow River in the morning sun.

The flamingos. Appropriately standing among the large conifers. Because when you wake up and look out of your tent in the morning around here, it's likely you'll see a flock of flamingos. :o)

A chameleon. I think these are very cool creatures. If ever I hear, "Mommy, can we get a snake? Pleeeeeeeeeease???" I may try to steer them in this direction, though I have no idea whether it's even legal or practical to have one. Maybe we should stick with fish.

And, WOW, were these some eye-poppingly huge bats. They were like nine-month-old human babies hanging upside down with wings.


The little monkey in the bottom right and Andy entertained each other for a moment.


Gorilla.
We stopped at the playground, and Sam came tearing around the corner, stopped abruptly, and said, "Hey, let me take you guys' picture like that!" Snapped the shot, handed the camera back, and went running off again.


Kangaroos! See the joey poking it's little head out?

And here's my little joey.
Just sittin' around.
Emu from above.

Red Panda.
These are the chunkiest prairie dogs I've ever seen. Otto thought maybe they were storing up for winter??

Sam rubbing the Elephant Buddha's tummy for good luck.


We rounded off the day with an early supper at a Persian restaurant on Edmonton Trail. Haven't had basmati rice made like that since Anush's mom's at his graduation party umpteen years ago, with those tangy little red berries on top - YUMMMMM!!! I should have taken a picture of that rice, but I dove right in and didn't think about it until it was all in my stomach.

Cook-Off Results, and the Calgary Zoo

No, Otto didn't get the blue ribbon. There were three categories: hottest, most unique, and best overall. I think he was going for best overall, but was beat out by a chicken chili. He said the winning chili was very tasty, and deserving of the win. Although he didn't win the chili contest, he did have a lot of Cool Whip pies thrown his way. People had to pay $5 a pie to chuck at him. Apparently he raised quite a bit of money for the United Way!

Saturday was a gorgeous day, and we packed a picnic lunch and headed for the zoo. At the Houston Zoo you generally hear ambulances and medical helicopters because it's right next to all the hospitals. At the Calgary Zoo we heard (and saw) airplanes flying over, all day. Every 1-2 minutes. At first it was neat and we were pointing up and looking ("Wow, look, an airplane!"), but by plane number 20 they kind of became background noise.

Here are Andy and Sam toward the beginning of our day. This was a little hill you could take as a detour from the main path. Any opportunity to climb is seized!

A bison family. And that baby could run!

An elk with an awesome rack.

Several peacocks freely roamed the grounds.

The hippos and giraffes. These massive indoor areas where large animals can be sheltered from abnormal cold were new to us. Don't need stuff like that at the Houston Zoo! When we made it around to the indoor side, there was a large tank with fish, and as we looked at the fish the hippos decided it was time for a dip. It was pretty neat to see them make their way into the water, swim by, then climb out the other side.

There was a prehistoric area complete with dinosaurs and hoodoos (there will be a little more on hoodoos when I post the last BC vacation entry). Here the boys pose on some of the man-made hoodoos.

Baby and Mama Elephant.

At this point we had been at the zoo for about five hours, and weariness was setting in.
We saw a couple more things, such as this snowy owl,

then headed to China Town for an early dinner. I should have taken at least a picture of a Chinese sign to put here. I even went back to the car to get the camera after we had walked a few paces. I guess I was a little tired, too.

We ate at Happy Valley, which hit the spot. Won-ton soup, spring rolls, and various stir-fried chicken, beef, and shrimp dishes. After our meal we headed down to the Chinese bakery in the lower level of the same building. Since it was an hour before closing we got 20% off our purchases. We snagged the last three butterfly cookies and a foot long slightly sweet cinnamon raisin bread/pastry, which tasted like it had just been baked, but I'll take the 20% off anyway, thank you.