…had a great weekend out running around in the sun. Spent Saturday with Prairie and her sisters H and K, and Sunday Prairie and I went out to the Woodland Park Zoo.
This swing is great. Suspended from a pulley on a wire, it’s got about thirty feet of wire to build up speed before the pulley hits the tire and you go flying up into the air. I may have turned 30 a few months ago, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re never too old to go play on a swing on a sunny day.
This is not a recommended method for frisbee catching. ;) However, if instead of a hard plastic frisbee, you’re using a “flippy flier” (a cloth circle lightly weighted down around the edges with sand…works great as a frisbee, and can be wadded up and stuffed into a pocket), it’s worth trying once or twice just for the amusement value.
Two butterflies, at the Woodland Park Zoo butterfly house. I’d only been in something like this once before, and this one was definitely the better of the two. Hundreds of butterflies all over the place, and all sorts of different varieties and patterns.
Even slightly out of focus, the coloring on this one was gorgeous.
These three turtles were just sitting on a branch, right under the water level in this display, watching everyone go by outside. I took the shot on a whim, putting the lens of my camera right up against the glass, just under the waterline, and more or less guessing at the right point to aim at — looks to me like I guessed right.
This was the first zoo I’d been to that I can remember seeing a toucan at, and this one was just a few feet away from the front of the display. The chain-link fence made getting a good shot a little tricky, but I was able to aim through one of the openings and only catch the tinest bit of fencing in the corners. I’m not sure what the bird thought of the experiment, though — he seems to be eyeing me somewhat warily.
I’ve got to say, I was really impressed by the Woodland Park Zoo. While it’s not the largest zoo I’ve been to, the exhibits were by far better than any I’d seen elsewhere. They’ve done a great job of creating “natural habitats” for most of the animals — the glaring exception was the penguin exhibit, and it was so shoddy in comparison to the rest that I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s just waiting to get upgraded. Easily my favorite of the exhibits, though, was the nocturnal animals exhibit. The entire thing is extremely dimly lit, in order to let the animals exist in their normal lighting, and you really have to take your time to quietly watch the exhibits before you’ll start to see the animals moving around.
Anyway, that was my weekend. Now, back to my usual mix of who-knows-what…
