We had a delightful day,though our legs did get tired of walking near the end! We had been talking on the way of some of the silly things we had heard people say at the zoo, and so I thought we could make someone's day by thinking up dumb things to say and then saying them loudly to others in our group...
(Isn't that what we remember most clearly about the various zoos we've been to?)
Dad thought of a good one while we were admiring the giraffes--there was an ostrich standing next to one of the giraffes, and Dad said, "Look at the baby giraffe!" And Ben came to me and told me how neat he thought it was that giraffes started out with two legs when they were young. : )
Psalms 8:4-9 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
If this was a normal size stagecoach--I never knew they were that small. I am assuming it wasn't.
In the old Texas town
What a great kind of exhibit--where the buildings are supposed to look dusty and unkept!
Would you like to adopt one of these?
This silly sloth bear was one of my favourites! Even though his perpetual pacing probably meant he was not very happy with his situation, the way he moved was so springy and his cheery looking face which appealed to us as he spun around on each end of the dam...
He reminded me of what I remember Baloo acting like. : )
Cranking penny souvenirs...
Very lovely landscaping all throughout the zoo--and shady most of the time too--we didn't get sunburns!
A large armor plated beast...
...A little like this one!
Dad tells Stephen stories at night about Chester the ant. While watching the hippos, Dad asked Stephen if he thought Chester was riding on one of the hippo's backs, and the hippo lifted his nose and snorted!
The baby giraffe.
It is funny that the last time we were at the Memphis zoo we were watching the Serval ( a small (vs. big) spotted cat with long legs) and a man standing near us with his son said, "Look at the baby giraffe!"
One reason why we might be especially partial to humor about the giraffes!
The younger members of our group!
"Following the track with the utmost care for several miles, we at
length came to a place where several huge rocks lay among the trees.
Here, while we were walking along in silence, Makarooroo made a peculiar
noise with his tongue, which we knew meant that he had discovered
something worthy of special attention, so we came to an abrupt pause and
looked at him.
"What is it, Mak?" inquired Jack.
The
guide put his finger on his mouth to impose silence, and stood in a
listening attitude with his eyes cast upon the ground, his nostrils
distended, and every muscle of his dusky frame rigid, as if he were a
statue of black marble. We also listened attentively, and presently
heard a sound as of the breaking of twigs and branches.
"Dat am be gorilla," said the guide, in a low whisper.
We exchanged looks of eager satisfaction.
"How shall we proceed, Mak?" inquired Jack.
"We
mus' go bery slow, dis way," said the guide, imitating the process of
walking with extreme caution. "No break leetle stick. If you break
leetle stick hims go right away."
--From "The Gorilla Hunters" by Ballantyne
And another quote...
"Of all the hideous creatures I had ever seen or heard of, none came up
in the least degree to this. Apart altogether from its gigantic size,
this monster was calculated to strike terror into the hearts of
beholders simply by the expression of its visage, which was quite
satanic. I could scarcely persuade myself that I was awake. It seemed
as if I were gazing on one of those hideous creatures one beholds when
oppressed with nightmare."
Shall I tell how I offended this Gorilla and how he reacted?
Since I can't tell if you said yes, I will write it down just in case. Don't read it if you said no.
I was wandering with Ben in the gorilla building when I came around a corner and glancing to the right met eyes with a silver back through a glass view hole. He made a nasty face and deliberately moved the rag he was sitting on to the side, and climbed off the shelf. I knew he was up to something so I called to Andrew who was coming and stepped back as the gorilla started to charge! WHAM! He tucked his shoulder in and hit the glass (obviously plexi-glass!) with incredible force!
Then he sat there with his profile to us giving us wicked looks, before giving up on us and going back to his seat. Maybe that is a lesson for me to be careful with whom I make eye contact with! : )
Red River Hogs
We never knew such odd creatures lived within 30 minutes of us!
(They don't. It was a different Red River!)
Genesis 1:20-25 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
