Day 6

Off To The Zoo

May 12, 2013, 9:49 AM

We are off to our first zoo on our Zoos Across America Retirement Trip. This is exciting!!!! We are all set, Spanky is in the car, we have our Atlanta Zoo pennant, we are wearing our matching T-shirts (Steve is probably a little nauseous about that), I have both my cameras (didn't want to spend the time switching lenses, so I put a different lens on each and just brought them both), we printed up the zoo map so we could pre plan our course of attack, and I'll go over the chapter on the Atlanta Zoo in my "America's Best Zoos" guide book one more time before we get there, of course I've highlighted the things to make sure we don't miss, and we are set!!

For anybody tasting a little bile in the back of their throats right now, just imagine poor Steve, he has to live with me 24/7/365.

Zoo Atlanta

May 12, 2013, 1:21 PM

What a great way to start our trip. The Atlanta zoo was great and the day could not have been more perfect for a visit. It was sunny and in the low 70's with an occasional breeze that cooled and played with the bamboo that was in abundance around the zoo. Since we are members of the Philadelphia Zoo we got in for half price. Although with today being Mother's Day I could have gotten in for free so it would have amounted to the same thing, but that just a matter of semantics. 

The first stop we made was to get a pin for the Atlanta zoo. We are going to get a pin at each zoo we visit along our sojourn. With the important purchase out of the way we were off. The first thing we saw was an elephant being fed by a zoo keeper. We went into a parakeet aviary, there are several of you that will be breaking out in a cold sweat at the thought, but it was really neat. There were birds flying all around. They were perched in trees, they were on the caging, they were on the ground, they were all over. And the noise they were making. It was so full of activity. You could get food that was on the end of a stick to feed them. The kids in the room were having a great time with that. 

Then we were at the giraffe, zebra, and black rhino (although there was no rhino) area. The giraffe were all the way in the back and we didn't get great shots of them. I got a few of the zebras, my plan was to get back to the giraffes but you know how plans go. 

Next we saw the Kori Bustard bird. I have never seen or even heard of this bird before. The Kori Bustard, not a great name but this was a fascinating bird. The female was just standing by a bush, she was tall, about 3'. Her mate was in a far corner and damned if you don't know he is up against a gate in the fence so that I couldn't get a full photo of him, but he was partially plumped up or out, I'm not quite sure which would be more appropriate. We were watching him for a few minutes, I was hoping he'd move away from the gate so that I could get a better photo, but sadly no. However he started making the most amazing noise. His call was like a drum beat. At first I thought I was hearing music being piped in. But Steve had started to walk away and he came back and asked me if I heard the noise the bird made. I thought he might be pulling my leg but don't you know he did it again. It was so cool!!! It wasn't loud and yet it did carry quite a distance. He was really getting into it too. A woman came by and told us that was his mating call. She was a frequent visitor to the zoo and she knew a lot of the animals by name. 

From there we made our way to the lions. The male lion was perched on top of a rock formation. He was so regal looking. It was so perfect! Gorilla were the next large area. They were great to watch. There were several young gorillas and they were running and swinging from a tree that had ropes hanging and hammocks to lay on. Of course they went out of their way to show mainly their backs. Little buggers. There was a large silver back male and I think at one point he'd had enough of the gorilla kids running around and he got up and walked around and they all just scattered. I could have stayed there all day. 

Next up was the Orangutan. Oh my gosh they are just sweet and adorable and so homely they're cute. One of them was having a birthday and so there were boxes that had wrapping paper on them and paper chains and a frozen cake made out of fruit and crystal light believe it or not. They were having the best time with that, but the empty boxes were the show stopper. They were putting them on their heads and acting crazy. It was just wonderful to watch. 

After that the pandas came up. This zoo that really wasn't very large had four pandas. The first one we came to was outside and he was just chowing down on bamboo. He had himself a little nest of leaves and he was eating up a storm. Then there were two that were sound asleep. Not much to see there, but the last one was going to town on the bamboo too. They are just darling creatures. 

At that point we were pretty much done. We made our way to the exit and came home. I have almost 1,000 pictures from today to go through so I have my work cut out for me. I forgot to mention, on the way back to the car we came across even more street performers. These guys looked a bit rough, but they sounded pretty good.