On Saturday Anthony & I made the 35 minute drive to the OKC Zoo. It was 10:30am at a cool 91* with the sun shining and only a few white puffy clouds in the brilliant blue sky. What a glorious day to see nature in all its caged in glory!!
We meandered around for a while in the Aviary and saw Chilean Flamingos (Anthony served his mission in Chile and was very excited to see them).
Next we headed to the Noble Aquatic Center and saw seals, turtles, fish, anemones, etc. There is a lake out behind the NAC where people can rent swan paddle boats, we want to go another day and do that.
W/in the NAC there is a Sea Lion show and there was no way I was passing that up. I think it would be the coolest to be an animal trainer, don't you think so?
The video is about 8 minutes long showing Xander, Pearl, and Addy. Watch the whole thing, it's really cool :)
After the show we tried a short cut and got lost in the Education/Children's Zoo. By this point it was about 12:30 and it had reached a blazing 99* We were getting a little grouchy and frustrated we couldn't find the exit back into the main zoo and had a rowdy little family of 7 butt in front of us at the drinking fountain. Not only did they jam their way in, but by the time the last meandering kids were blocking our way they weren't drinking the water... they were wetting cloths repeatedly and playing with blasted feathers in the water. Finally I scolded mustered up as much kindness as I could pull out of my cooking bones and asked them to share one of the two fountains if they were just going to play so I could refill my dang water bottles before all the ice melted.
We headed over to the Pachyderm area, one of my favorites, and saw all the rhinoceroses but somehow missed the Pigmy Hippo.
The Cat Forest was a bust because ALL the cats were in their dens trying to beat the heat. We didn't see a single thing. I don't blame them one bit, can you imagine running around with a winter coat on all the time?
The Great Apes were across the way so we stopped to watch them for a while. Bless the architects who put all the shaded areas next to the glass so we could actually see some activity even on blistering hot days.
You see the fellow in the bottom right corner of the photo? He didn't move the ENTIRE TIME the gorilla was sitting near the glass. I fought the urge to do one of those "we'll get our turn to look as soon as this man infront of us moves" clearly loud enough so the man could hear it and get the hint. I really hate it when people behind me say things like that so I refrained from doing it myself. I guess I could have just sidled up next to him, but that might have been a bit awkward.
After some ape action (literally. It was scandalous) we headed to my favorite part of the zoo
There are three elephants at the OKC Zoo. Chandra & Asha are sisters, and Malee (May-lee) is Asha's baby.
Malee was born in April to Asha & Sneezy (who lives in Tulsa). Can you imagine giving birth to a 304lb baby?
See how they're holding trunks? It was SO cute. Reminded me of that song in Dumbo, you know, the one that makes me cry every time I watch it.
By this point we had been at the zoo for 5 hours and had each drank about 6 bottle of water. Though our bellies were full and sloshing our mouths felt like we'd been eating sand so we decided to make like this guy
and headed to the car for some glorious A/C. However, I apparetly do not do well with heat. I already knew from walks, exercising, etc. that I get pretty red when I'm hot... but once we reached the car and I looked at myself in the mirror the lobster staring back at me was not pleased. Luckily I was smart enough to wear sunscreen and I no longer look like a tomato.
We'll be going back to the zoo in the fall/early winter to see the rest of the facility when it's a bit cooler.
