A day at the Zoo

[mdlbear]

I'm not sure how the chaoswolf managed to get out of bed so early; I think she slept badly if at all last night. In any case, we headed up to the San Francisco Zoo at 9am sharp so as to be there when the Zoo Parent Day activities started at 10. It was the kind of cold, grey day Mark Twain had in mind when he complained that "The coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Francisco" -- though I strongly suspect he had never visited Minnesota at that point. Still, I was glad of a fuzzy, warm jacket.

The Wolfling was good company. Without an arthritic flower_cat we were able to cover almost the entire zoo by the time we left around 3pm. Since the Wolfling's adopted animal was a Siberian tiger named Tony, we did most of our wandering around before lunch, to be sure of being at the lion house by 1:45.

Our morning rambles brought us past the African savannah exhibit, the gorillas, the bears, the hippos, the rhinos, the wart hogs, and of course the big cats. I'm particularly fond of the spectacled bears and the rhinos, the latter perhaps because I feel a great sympathy for animals that are nearsighted and inclined to be peevish. The hippos always make me think of the dancing hippos in Fantasia, managing to be both silly and graceful at the same time.

We rode the "Little Puffer" steam train, had lunch (where we ran into lisa_marli and her son H, who had adopted a penguin), and spent some time with the river otters, who were being fed at 1:15 and were conveniently close to the lion house.

Our "zoo parent" stickers got us in to the lion house 15 minutes before it opened to the general public for feeding time. This not only got us a pleasant and informative talk from the keeper, but got us in before the crowd. Even on a cold afternoon in October it got pretty crowded, but the Wolf got a front-row position in front of "her" cat. I stood two cages down in front of his "companion" Tatiana; she was brought in a year or so ago to keep Tony company after his long-time mate died of cancer. Tony is 15 years old; Tatiana is 8. Tatiana is big. Tony is huge -- at 400 pounds and 7 feet long, he's the biggest of their cats. Impressive. He seemed to be enjoying himself, too.

After the tigers we visited the koalas, kangaroos, and wallabies, spent a few minutes in gift shops, and finally headed home. I was more tired than I expected to be, and probably more than I should have been for safe driving. I felt much better after dinner -- the Wolfling cut through the usual tedious negotiations about which restaurant to go to by taking us all out for sushi again. Ran into some other friends on the way out.

Went out for a short drive with the flower_cat and I'm now back at home, sipping on a glass of The Glenlivet and updating my LJ, feeling tired, happy, and somewhat decadent. Think I'll go to bed early tonight.

Comments

[chaoswolf]

Posted pics by morning.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Sushi, then Glenlivet... decadent indeed. Though if you like the Glenlivet, you should try the Dahlwinnie 15... mmmmm, smooth.