Yesterday Stephanie and I went to the Woodland Park Zoo. We had many compelling reasons for going to the zoo on a Tuesday afternoon: 1) it’s always enjoyable to play hooky, 2) the weather was gorgeous (~75 and sunny), and 3) baby animals! (According to the zoo’s website, four otter pups and a porcupette were just recently deemed old enough to be allowed to roam their exhibits.)
The zoo!
We got to the zoo at just the right time. Because we went and grabbed some sushi lunch in Wallingford beforehand (so many avocado rolls), we didn’t arrive until ~1pm. This was just when all of the kids on field trips were getting ready to leave. We walked past 10+ school buses and a lot of hot/tired kids as we we were entering the zoo. If we’d gotten there earlier in the morning, our visit certainly would’ve been a bit… louder. In any case, the zoo wasn’t very busy and we were able to walk around/view the animals in a nice, leisurely fashion.
A tree kangaroo chompin’ down on a flower (left) and making friends with a Patas monkey (right).
Unfortunately, we were unable to spot any of the babies that I mentioned earlier. They were likely snoozin’ away the afternoon in the comfort of their respective dens. Nevertheless, we still had a good time. And we did get to see one baby, but it was a Komodo dragon, so probably not quite as adorable as a baby porcupine/otter… I’d say that my top three animal sightings/viewings on the day were 3) the warty pigs (very cute and seemingly underrated; we stood by their exhibit for 5+ minutes and nobody else stopped to watch them), 2) the sloth bears (the yearlings/cubs were wrestlin’ pretty ferociously with one another), and 1) the tree kangaroo (such a fluffy tail!). We wandered around the zoo for more than three hours and exited just a little bit before closing.
This little guy almost jumped in the water ~20 times but never quite worked up the courage. Poor buddy.
After we left the zoo, we made our way over to the adjacent Woodland Park Rose Garden and walked around a bit. Although most of the roses won’t bloom for another month or so, it was still beautiful and vibrant and lovely. Several cherry trees were in blossom and most of the plants had a ton of new, brightly-colored growth. The grounds are manicured exceptionally well (especially for a free public park), and it’s easy to pretend that you’re lost in the middle of a sprawling Victorian estate. This seems like it’d be a particularly perfect place for reading a book on a lazy summer day…
No roses yet, but so many different shades of green.
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Miles run in 2014: 132.7
Books read in 2014: 27