Trip to NE - A Morning at the Zoo!

The next morning (Saturday), we had only two hours at the Zoo before we had to rush back to our hotel and change clothes for Mark's wedding, but it was well worth it!

The highway systems in Omaha, NE are absolutely convoluted and confusing -- we had to switch from one to the other to get anywhere, even close by! Thankfully we had Dad & Nathaniel -- they're terrific navigators!

Handsome Andrew. I couldn't ask for a better brother.

The Zoo had an enormous indoor rainforest. It was really quite neat!

My apologies for the fuzzy picture (don't you just hate fuzzy photos?), but this softshell turtle was just too weird to miss! It was probably about three feet or more long, and very gelatinous-looking.

A bearded monkey, just for Deborah (who hates beards ;)

Can you spot the baby?

Doesn't it look dead? ;)

Statues outside the aquarium!

It was a cold day -- 29* outside, even with the sun out!

Stephen was captivated by the swimming penguins.

These crabs were "like aliens," Stephen reported, with their exaggeratedly-slow movements.

And this was something Stephen was looking forward to the whole time -- a 50-foot shark tunnel!

Here's a look at it...

These were upside-down jellyfish, which have a symbiotic relationship with algae (which is why they have to be upside down; so the algae gets light).

I could've watched these jellyfish for hours. They were fascinating! Alas, we had just a few minutes before hurrying on. ;)

Yes, these are fish!

Slowly turning a darker purple... this octopus was quite large and (some said) gross. ;)

Stephen decided to pose on all the animal statues! Here he displays a pressed penny. :)

A desert cat -- totally adorable

This unique desert bird was so brightly colored!

Thorny Art

Darling klipspringer

These rock hyrax look like they have an attitude!

We were just in time to see the white tiger being fed! Look at the neat designs on his head!

A photo can't even begin to show how big this toger was. I've never seen one this big before. His head was literally 2' or more across, and his body probably 10' to 11' long. Awesome -- but I hope I never meet one in the wild! :)

Here's a photo to show how cold it was -- a waterfall had frozen!

Deborah joins in the posing on statues...

:)

This shot is for Beth. And do you know what, Beth -- this male gorilla was glaring at us quite aggressively, and after we'd gone on, we heard a "thump" which seemed to hint that he'd slammed into the plexiglass! ;)

Dwarf mongoose cuteness

These peacocks roamed the zoo freely

This one (hoping to be fed, I think) came right up to me!

Mom wanted to show this chameleon to Beth -- it looked like it was trying to match the floor of her house!

A final pose on a tortoise :)

Then off we hastened to dress for the wedding! That post will be next. :)