Implications of a New Name: The Perfect Date

So on Sunday Brent and I went to the LA Zoo to savor our last day together before I went to my sister's in Seattle for ten days. It was the perfect way to spend our last day, laughing together at the animals and practicing our photography skills.

This duck got really angry when a foreign duck jumped into the pond from outside the fence guarding it. As soon as the foreign duck entered the water, this guy shot toward him, yelling at him to get out. The foreign duck was duly intimidated and flew outside the fence right away, but snuck into the bushes right next to the fence so that he could maybe sneak back into the pond when the Alpha Duck wasn't looking. The whole scene made us laugh really hard, but if I had been the foreign duck I think I would have screamed and cried. The Alpha Duck was really scary.

This swan was in the same pond during the entire scene, but he didn't care or bat one eye. He just went on looking as serene and beautiful as a swan can look when it has a bulbus growth on its nose.

The alligator just laid there. His back leg makes me laugh. It reminds be of the leg of a pudgy baby. :)

We met this little guy.

And we were surprised and amazed at the bright, vibrant colors of this bird's feathers.

The toucan looked really funny gnawing on a stick.

The snow leopards were so active. They were our favorites of the day. Two of them were playing with a pine cone like a house kitty plays with a wadded up piece of paper. They were even wrestling each other for it and pouncing on each other!

The tortoise just sat there looking patient and slow.

The jaguar paced. Paced and paced and paced. Poor thing.

I admired the beauty of the trees, so Brent attempted to capture them.

But he got distracted and started taking pictures of me.

More snow leopard. This picture is out of order, and I'm not going to fix it.

The regal tiger.

The friendly monkey.

There was plexi-glass separating me from the monkey on a branch about four feet away. I crouched down low to the level of the branch, and the monkey jumped to the ledge of the window RIGHT in front of me, so if the plexi-glass hadn't been there I could have grabbed him and cuddled him. He was so cute.

More regal tiger. Again, out of order. Sorry. I'm in too much of a rush to fix it. :)

Another glamor shot.

Why do I feel guilty that so many of the animals' evade me? And I JUST went to the zoo on Sunday. Pathetic.

This is an ape. That's all I know.

This is a fat hippo. He ate and ate and ate. That's all he did, the whole time we observed him.

This is the next animals' baby. Sorry I don't remember what it's called. Haha. This is bad.

I do remember that this is related to GIRAFFES, not deer (as its head would indicate) or zebras (as its back side would indicate). There are two types of giraffes in the world, savannah giraffes and forest giraffes. You're looking at a forest giraffe.

Now you're looking at an ostrich. I was really confused as to why the zookeepers would keep the poor ostrich's food bowl outside of his gate. He didn't seem to mind, though.

Proud little birdie.

Humans. Mates.

NOW you're looking at a savannah giraffe. (He's sayin, "WHAT? Huh?")

No idea what these are.

Some sort of a horned animal. With really cool horns.

I enjoy the zoo. I really do. I promise. I love to watch animals. I just don't like to spend time in front of the information describing each animal. I'll do that when I have kids and need to teach them. For now, I'm just enjoying myself when I go to the zoo. :)

These were kinda cute.

Brent and the gorilla. (Brent's the one on the left.) (So I learned that joke from Return to Me. Won't take credit. :)

I thought these trees were really pretty. I'm all about the pretty trees.

The orangatan was fun. There were two orangatan exhibits that were separated from each other by net, but there was passage between the two of them via a circular hole WAY up high in the sloping part of the net. This orangatan took his sweet time showing off his strength as he mosied up the net toward the circle, and when he got through the circle he threw his hands over his head and slid all the way down the net. Made all the observers laugh. :)

Yet another picture out of order.

A cute little fox type guy. He didn't really feel like showing me his face, but the back of his ears were pretty cute.

Zebra. I know that one.

A little marsupial of some sort. Not quite a kangaroo, if I remember correctly.

Mister Koala Bear.

Pudgy looking bird.

Meerkat. Always at attention.

The koala bear was really photogenic.

So cute. I want to hug him and let him wrap his arms and legs around me.

This pelican thought it was very important to get as flat as possible.

At the end of our day, we went to the gift shop to find a stuffed animal for my niece, Georgie. We got her a snow leopard because that was the favorite of our day. I also found a journal that was probably intended for very small girls, but I fell in love with it for myself.