The Zoo

I had no desire to come straight back home and wander around an empty sad house all day, so Carly and I went straight to the zoo and then to Ikea and then to The Mother Of All Targets...then to pick up photos, run to the bank, get gas for the car and pick up dinner...

*

Anyway, we managed to see most of the zoo in just a couple of hours because we happened to get there right at opening time and Carly was in her stroller. She told me she was too sad to walk.

I know.

*

These enormour tortoises were the first thing that caught her eye. We loved this big sleepy one.

Yes, that is what it looks like! This is for you, A & A.

I zoomed in from far away for this one...partly to avoid the group of snickering young men and partly to avoid Carly asking me what the turtle was doing. Especially since turtle number one was making this awful "uuhhnn" sound.
We went to see the pandas! The mama panda is away right now tending to her baby, but we did see some of the older siblings. This little guy will be leaving the zoo soon to head back to China and share his born-in-the-wild genes with the captive panda population there.
This is the gingko biloba tree...I'm just including it because, as we were walking by, one of the tour buses passed and the guide said "Oh look, it's gingko biloba. It's used for something, but I can't remember what."
I thought that was so clever...about a minute later when I finally got the joke. =)
These are the prettiest little neon flowers. The colors are amazing.
Carly loves giraffes!
Waving bye-bye to the "jaff."
The elephants were our last stop on the way out. Around noon, it started getting H-O-T and crowded, so we took off for the rest of our crazy day.