2.23.2009

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

Well, believe it or not, I'm finally going to write a blog post! It's been a long time coming, I know, and I'm sorry. We made it back to Maine Thursday night, and Friday was my day to prepare for the wedding I was photographing on Saturday. The day went quite smoothly and it was a beautiful setting with many lovely details to photograph. I'll be sure to post highlights here and there as I edit the hundreds of pictures Hayley and I took.
First, though, I thought I'd better post a few pictures from our trip to Ohio. As I looked through all of the images I had taken, I realized I didn't really bring my camera out very often on this trip. Obviously I was having too much time relaxing to think about photo ops. I did bring it along when we visited the Cleveland Zoo, so you'll get plenty of animal shots!Nora found a friend in this little gibbon pretty quickly.
This is Jenny and Toby's new cat.
(They like big animals.)
No, but seriously, I don't remember what kind of cat this is.
This might be one of the saddest pictures I've taken. This poor orangutan was slumped over in the corner of the room, looking very depressed. Or drugged. Or both.
Nora shows Grandma the cool animals.
I had to ask Shane what these were (ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar, by the way). I waited and waited (for over a whole minute!) but they never all looked at me at the same time. I'll never have the patience to be a real nature photographer.
It was pretty cold outside, but in the greenhouse it was humid and hot. I would have loved to have stayed longer to check out all the tropical species, but Nora was sweating big time in her snowsuit (as were we all) so we headed back outside to the cooler weather.
We found a cool little playground near the exhibits and Nora and Ashleigh had to try out one of the slides. You can't really tell, but Nora was cracking up.
Nearby, a Siberian tiger prowled, just waiting to pounce if we threatened it's young. Or not.
It was very cool to see giraffes so close, but we all felt bad that their winter housing was really just a giant warehouse with only a couple of windows and chain link fencing. It was very drab and pretty depressing.
Towards the end of our tour we found the bears, including this handsome (pretty?) polar bear. Is it true that their fur is clear and not really white? Did I make that up?
Finally, two of my very favorite people. Nora was so great all through the day, especially given that she didn't take a nap. On the way home around 4pm she did crash, but during the day she was great and very interested in all of the animals. The pictures here don't even begin to include all we saw; there were tons of other animals I didn't even mention. Thanks, Jenny, for treating us, and thanks to the whole family for having us for a visit!

7 comments:

Keatons said...

Beautiful pictures. Glad the family is out and about and done throwing up.

Anonymous said...

For some reason when I heard you went to the zoo, I was thinking the weather was warm . . . makes me feel a little less jealous to see you guys all bundled up!

Kalen says, "Why don't we ever go to the zoo?"

Anonymous said...

Cool pictures! I do believe that polar bear fur are clear hollow tube thingys that reflect the light and trap it to keep them warm. I really want to go to a zoo! I've never been. Maybe Kalen and I can go, since we both want to!!!

Ashleigh Garrett Long said...

so, i realized shane has been taking nice pictures as of late, then i realized...i guess it's the facial hair..i think i have to go ahead and admit i'm more a fan than not...there, i said it.

olliesmommy said...

Hey there,
We are very glad you guys are feeling better, but sad Nora and Oliver didn't get to play together. Oliver wanted to know if Nora would accompany him down the aisle at our wedding and maybe mama would do us the honor of taking our pictures? ;-) Well let us know if this is a possibility. Haven't been able to get your info from my dad, but you can either email me or call me whichever's easier for you.
ramirez.69@osu.edu or 440-242-5277

Sorry we missed you guys and hoping we will be seeing you in the fall at least =)

Anonymous said...

Two things: 1) i think your lemur pic is worthy of national geo and 2) what is growing on shane's face?
love you!

Kimmy and Olive said...

i love the photos! especially the ones of the cacti and flowers! seems like a great trip