Audubon Zoo

Today's weather was perfect! Sunny in the 70's a slight breeze...Byron's Friday off...the girl's first day of spring break...So let's go to the zoo! We always buy a yearly membership. That way we can come and go as we please. When it's really hot we can zip in for an hour and leave before everyone is cranky. We don't feel like we have to stay all day and get our money's worth. Our money's worth is gotten a few hours at a time throughout the year.

Audubon Zoo does a great job of making you feel as if you are just wandering through the forest, swamp or the savanna. The gardens are wonderful, the ancient live oaks are worth going to view alone, and those lazy animals are taken well care of.
The elephants usually love to back up to the moat and wag one leg and their back end over the edge. All the people gasp, believing that any moment it will plunge over. I'm sure when they go into their elephant house at night they snicker about this.
This is one of the large live oaks that has been around since the revolutionary war. I took a picture of the side without children. The other side has a branch that sweeps to the ground and must have had twenty five children on it at the time I took this picture. My husband and I both remember climbing this tree when we were young.
Lazy cat. This reminds me of Flossie my cat. Always laying around. Sometimes when she stares at me I wonder if she's thinking about eating me. This cat was content to soak in the spring sun.

Seleste's favorite animals are the birds. There are little feed machines that you can put a quarter in and get a hand full of feed. Today there were so many people at the zoo that the birds were stuffed and just idly glanced at the food the girls tossed. These pelicans were huge and stayed together as if they were having an important discussion. Maybe on global warming or how they could band together to get their own pond away from those pesky ducks.

This regal wood duck posed and preened for everyone. He knew he was gorgeous.

The white rhinos are awesome to behold. We even got to see two of them snort threateningly and charge at one another. I guess it was just a bluff because they veered off. Such creatures make you wonder at the diversity of creation. I found myself wondering aloud today, "What if people had noses like elephant trunks? Would we shake trunks? Would we use our trunks to eat our food?" Byron just looked at me. No answer. Oh well.