Biblical(?) Zoo!

Hebrew letters, OON? That's what we thought at first too. But just tilt a little to the left and then you'll understand....Zoo! Ok, you still won't understand the Hebrew part, but I can't help you there. I never pass up a day at the zoo, even though I'm still a little scarred from being licked by a giraffe at a young age. And semi-attacked by a large cockatoo the same day. Ok, not attacked, but I did not enjoy having to feed it in the bird show because it liked my hand better than the food that was in it.

Penguins are my main motivation behind zoo trips. The second I got in the park I found them on the map, and then felt instant joy when I saw this sign. Amanda and Katie love them just as much as I do (or so they claimed), so it was fun to finally share my excitment and pure joy that my little flightless friends give me.

We found out the penguins eat lunch at 12:00, so we toured the rest of the zoo first. They had an actual-size Noah's Ark there (ok not totally actual), so we went on two-by-two. Then everyone yelled at me and Jillian for ruining God's plan by being two female elephants. Zoos kind of smell funny, so I can only imagine what the ark was like. I've always felt a special connection to Noah since my primary days when my notorious problem of getting song lyrics wrong started out strong ("Who built the Ark? No one! No one! Who built the ark? No one, No one built the ark!). My dear brother still sings that to me once in a while.

This one's for you, Jac! I love that elephants don't forget anything. Except I'm not sure I would want that gift.

Definite connection.

Penguins!!! I even saved my lunch to eat with them. Usually I'm hungry by 10 a.m., which is kind of a problem, but a lunch date with penguins was more than enough incentive to hold out. I LOVE these guys! There was a lady there who has randomly traveled the world to see penguins, so she taught me and Katie all sorts of great stuff. Like...the striped guys, those are the boys. Solids, girls. And they only eat fish that are alive, not dead. And they only love one other penguin their whole life. I could go on, but then I'd miss them too much.

We stayed with them for about 30 minutes, then I could tell I needed to pry myself away. I would have been happy there all day though, no lie.

I made fun of the sign by this statue ("Warning: this statue becomes very hot during hours of the day when the sun shines directly on it, please be careful). I thought that was a little unnecessary. Then we took this picture and I hopped on the bear with no hesitation...you can't tell, but I'm in pain. The sign is not lying. And they put it up because they know people like me will still get burned. Feel bad for my hands.

And feel bad for these guys...or maybe they're just tired? Either way, I wanted to hold the little guy and tell him everything would be ok.