Mr Giraffe was the first guy we met at the zoo. He was chilling out next to the Elephants and Hippos, thinking about pottery.
This is the pygmy hippo. He's sad because the little kids in front of us were picking on him for having hair in his ears.
My personal favorite of the large rodents (no offense Mickey) and a dashing specimen to boot! The Capybara.
This is the non-pygmy hippo at the zoo. Trust me, he's much bigger than the little guy.
The baby elephant, doing baby elephant things in his enclosure.
"I'm watching you!"
Mr. Elephant, dancing on the tree.
Circling back around from the Elephants, we came across Mr. Giraffe again. He's still thinking nice thoughts about clay pots.
Everyone who goes to the zoo wants to see the pandas. Panda panda panda panda. OK - I get it, you want to see panda. Here's a preview of the Pandas.
This is an EMU. It is not an Ostrich. EMU.
Where's the Zebra? Where IS he??? Those stripes make him SO hard to see!
Wallaby. It's fun to say Wallaby. WaaaaalaaaaBeeeee.
For those of you patient enough to wait, the pay off has arrived. PANDAS! For those of you who skipped ahead, congrats - you saw thru my little charade.
Tai Shan is the National Zoo's one year old panda cub. Here he is, climbing out of his Panda Cave and up onto the grass to play around.
Tai Shan isn't too good with the whole "climbing trees usually involves defeating gravity" thing. Here, he walked up the tree, then decided he wanted to turn around, but had a hard time figuring out how to make that happen. Oops.
Back on track, walking around on the tree...
Slipping and falling out of the tree... (Here he raises his arm saying "It's all good - I MEANT to do that. Really. I'm fine...")
"Whoah! Where did that hole in the tree come from???" Followed shortly by... "Hey, look at this yummy bamboo!"
After the Pandas, we cut through the Bird House and got distracted by a bunch of birds. Sneaky zoo types...
The rare White Bird with Blue Eye and Red Leg Band.
These birds each were fed a softball just before being put on display.
We think this might be an Ibis. Or a stork. Or a puffin.
This guy looks on incredulously as we ponder where the puffins are.
This had to have been one of the ugliest birds I had ever seen. Too bad I have no idea what it's called.
"Did someone say Ugly Bird???"
"Here I thought _I_ was the ugliest bird in the zoo. Sigh...."
"Hah! He thought he was the ugliest bird in the Zoo!" "Yah! Everyone knows that Stan is the ugliest one!" "...Sniff... Why are they always picking on me...."
Stan makes a break for South Florida. Watch for the gators there Stan...
Stan's creepy uncle Bruce, bellies up to the bar at the Gator pond in the South Florida exhibit.
Meanwhile, Larry, Bruce's insurance salesman, keeps a close eye on Martha.
We finally escaped from the sordid lives of Birds, only to find ourselves wrapped up in another type of Monkey Business.
Godzilla!!!! No, wait, wrong movie. King Kong!
On my other monitor, this looked like a gorilla. On the this one, he looks more like a weird shaped black hole. Use your imagination. Think Ape thoughts.
No, this is not a rorschach test. There are two gorillas here, and a white sheet. Ok, maybe it is a rorschach test.
I was going for something poignant here. Then the orang spit up his lunch all over the window and began drawing in it.
And after he finished drawing in his lunch, he proceeded to lick it off the window. Much to the horror of this little boy.
Godzilla!!!!
This is a 6 foot long Komodo Dragon. I call him Spike.
Shhh... Spike heard me talking about him...
"Shut your mouth when you're talking to me..."
We left Spike as he was investigating the smell of juicy rat in his indoor enclosure, and wandered over to the Tiger display.
It was all I could do not to start singing "Eye of the Tiger" to myself while I took photos. "Bamp. Bamp bamp bamp. Bamp bamp bamp. Damp bamb baaaamp....." Nevermind.
Here kitty kitty kitty... I've got some catnip for you!
This is not Catnip.
Did someone say Tiger?!?
Oh no! Not the Tiger!
"Head for the hills! Tigers!"
"Everyone, this is silly. There are no tigers. It's a seal exhibit for cryin out loud..."
"Tigers or not, I need my beauty sleep... Wake me up if anyone gets eaten."
"Seriously. Unless there's full on carnage, with some poor defenseless animal getting all munched on by a wild beast, I'm going back to sleep."
"THAT DOESN'T COUNT!" The sea birds getting their bucket-o-fish.
They don't look all that bald to me. Maybe it's a toupee.
By the time we made it to the wolf exhibit, we were feeling pretty sympathetic with the wolves. Time to go home and take a nap.
