A Day at the Zoo

Hi Ya'll! Hope you are having a nice weekend. This post has nothing to do with cake whatsoever. So if you stop reading now I will not be offended. I can't be offended because I have no way of knowing if you stop reading or not. But if I did know you stopped reading, my feelings would be hurt, so please keep reading. I think you will enjoy the pictures.(Click on them to enlarge, because some of them are pretty good if I may say so myself!)

My hubby P, my youngest son J, and I took advantage of the arrival of some beautiful spring weather and spent the day at the Audubon Zoo. Apparently so did the other 2 million people that live in the Greater New Orleans area. It was packed. Despite the crowds, we had a wonderful day at our nationally highly ranked facility. ( Which I am very proud of because when I was a kid, the place was a total dump. They did a major improvement project about 25 years ago or so and it is a world of difference.)




We are fortunate enough to be one of only a few zoos in the nation with white Bengal tigers.

So sweet and peaceful.

I though this little fellow was cute.

Some kind of bear walking right towards us.

Oh, a little to the left. No, a smidgen to the right.

Ah, yes, that's the spot.

Watching the apes is one of my favorite things at the zoo. They don't do much, but their mannerisms and facial expressions are so human like, it fascinates me.

Yeah, he scared me a little.

Here are my 2 apes. They are very uncooperative with picture taking. This photo is out of focus because my camera focused on those 2 guys in between them (pro photog I am not.) But I am blown away by the exact same facial expressions they have here.

Now that is better. I had to threaten them with cooking dinner to get some nice smiles out of them.

The zoo has a brand new exhibit about dinosaurs. They are life sized robotic things, kind of like you see at Disneyworld. They move and roar and stuff. Not sure what kind this is.

This is the dreaded T Rex.

And my little monster in front of a smaller one. He really loves the Jurassic Park movies, and enjoyed this exhibit a lot.

A nice shot of rhino butt for your enjoyment. This was taken just moments after he sprayed his territory about 4 times in a row. That was lovely to watch.

Looks like a decoy, doesn't it? He was gorgeous.

What ya'll lookin' at?

A black bear walking in the swamp water. Nasty.

J-Man and P-Daddy on the climbing thing. J makes Dad do everything with him. He is at that age where he is separating from me and all about his dad. Sniff. Sniff.

OK. The giraffes were my absolute favorite yesterday. They were out and walking all around, very close to the viewing area. They were very interactive with each other and I was just mesmerized by them. This is the baby who kept just walking in this big circle.



Close up of the baby. I named him Lagniappe. Get it? Cuz lagniappe is a little something extra thrown in ?

Two adults who stayed side by side the whole time. I think one was courting the other. See the little tongue sticking out? Cute! There were 2 other adults out and about also.

Love this shot for some reason. Aren't they magnificent creatures?

Here is the lovey dovey couple literally "necking." Right after this pic was taken, one of them did something really disgusting. The whole crowd went "EEEWWE!" My trance was broken. Time to move on to another animal.

J-Man was really into the raccoons for some reason so I had to take some pics for him.

Here is one foraging with his front paws. They would not stay still long enough for me to get any good shots.

Big ole swamp alligator with algae growing on him. He was huge. That's good eatin' in these parts! (But not me. I don't like alligator; too chewy.)

I saved some room on my photo card hoping the elephants would come outside and they never did. So I didn't get any pictures of my all time favorite zoo animal. Next time!

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It did my spirit a lot of good to get out in the fresh air, do some walking, and spend some time with my 2 guys. It would have been totally perfect if my other son had been there, but alas, he is away learning crap in college that he may or may not use later in life.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. Support your local zoo. The animals need you and it will do your heart good.

Sharon