I went this afternoon with Sean, Caitlin, Sam, and Bob.
The zoo is absolutely beautiful -- I wasn't sure what to expect since there's no entrance fee -- but it's full of modern architecture, clean and paved pathways that lead around patches of natural woods, man-made ponds with all sort of birds a-flockin', and pavilions and stages.
We started with the Children's zoo because Caitlin was sad that every time she visits that area the wolves are never out. Well, go figure, there was one asleep smack in the middle of their padlocks. The brown bear was also quite active in that section. There's an activity center for the kiddies as well -- and we stood for a good 10 solid minutes watching the beavers swim around:
It's so crazy that animals like these beavers, platypus-es (platypi?), etc... exist. It's like 4 animals combined or something... These two were so adorable! -- spinning around, practically putting on a show. Sam made the joke of "Where's Aslan?"
We headed out of the Children's section to the Seal Pond for the zoo's afternoon tra
ining session. We stood along the railing as the zookeeps in their galoshes walked around with a Q-tip looking tool. It was actually quite the handy utensil -- the seal followed it and touched its nose to the end to be rewarded with a bucket-full of fishies. It was hard to follow where the seal was going -- they really do blend in, even in a pool. And they were so FAST. *sigh* it was adorable. I want one as a pet.
Then we started to make our way around the winding paths through the African section, Big Cats, Small Mammals and Reptiles, Birds, and the Ape House. The animals were surprisingly active. Usually when you visit zoos, the animals are either sleeping or are inside where you can't see them. But today (beside the lions) everyone was out and about, making some sort of an appearance or show. The polar bear was out for a joy swim, the tiger was bouncing playfully from side to side of his pen because a flock of birds had his attention (the tiger came right up to us -- 1 inch of glass away from us! it was incredible!), and the daddy silverback gorilla was playing with the baby gorilla -- tossing him around, chasing, rolling. It was a great day for animal watching :) Even as we were heading out to leave, the male lion decided to stand on his big rock and roar for the whole zoo to hear. Then he proceeded to go back to sleep.
Below are the rest of the pictures before my batteries died:
African Wild Dogs
Giraffes! (unfortunately I couldn't feed them here like at the Jacksonville Zoo)
The saddest monkey ever...
Meercats!! 
And of course, the polar bear <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQyrDt4NPhBD4e3cRzwEebjUIstSNRX6selXPFFszxFMla2QWW3ydRK_Alybhv8QgjYKwx4dQ2ANe5rq4IQHqSPxGK9euvI5FdkvURxFiGaaJFZ4xuBIWDPXyL4wFCMGMcwevnnAU1w/s1600-h/DSCN1504.JPG">
I can't wait to see Bob and Caitlin's photos -- they're the real photographers :)
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