Done, done, done with this roasting. I mean it, really. We escaped the inland fire and joined our bretheren along the tippy edge of SF at the Zoo, which is USUALLY bathed in fog and not such a nice place during the summer. Woah, somebody float some ice blocks in the poor Polar Bear's water, will ya? I must admit that taking the day and heading to the SF Zoo with Shnicklefritz and his parents was a lovely way to spend a day away from the torrid heat. (I still think that I should just bite the bullet and get up at 2 am to do my work because the dye room is impossible to be in these days past 10 am. I know, whiney, aren't I? Creativity like mine takes good music and temperate climate, darn it! :o)
Hey, I thought that I would show you who in invisioned when I created Mombassa. He was regal and coiffed and hanging with the Mrs, right where we could luxuriate in his gorgeousness. Mmmmmmmmombassa.
Perfection. So much perfection that the Zoo has life sized sculptures of these two.
Oh, the humans aren't too bad, either...The Daughter and little Pipplesnips having a sit. All of the life sized bronze scuptures around the zoo have nice cushy "flooring" around them so that the kids can climb on the animals and feel their bodies and not crack their heads if there should be a slip of the foot. Lovely.
The zoo has two new giraffe babies. One is cared for by mama and the other one is a bottle baby. Check out this motherly love.
My favorite part of the zoo was the children's zoo. Hey...up close and personal with Churro sheep, angora goats and other riffraff. Of course the bucks were all safely tucked away but they were magnificent. I am just delighted with what has been done in SF with this place. I remember an embarrassment of a park...concrete and hard surfaces and just forlorn animals. Now there is grass and fabulous habitats and beautiful gardens. My daughter, who had recently been to San Diego said that she actually was more impressed by this one. High praise, indeed.
A fine time was had by all.
Last time we were there it was still immersed in concreteland. The elephants had a moat and a straight-up embankment to keep them away from visitors, and not really (if you're the size and strength of an elephant) a whole lot else. I remember commenting that what would one do if a quake struck and they spooked enough? The Loma Prieta 7.1 was a week later. The elephants stayed put, but a wolf went running down the streets of downtown for awhile there.
I'm delighted to see your pictures and to know it's an animal-friendlier place now. And notice that lion is lying on the rocks? Let's stay nice and cool there, thank you very much.
Shnicklefritz, meantime, as always, steals the show. Such a cutie!
Posted by: AlisonH | July 23, 2006 at 03:01 PM
Wow those lions are something. That mane is so Tina Turner. Tigers look like cats to me, and female lions, but those guys with the manes look like something unrelated to my fuzzy house pets.
Posted by: CarolineF | July 24, 2006 at 05:24 AM
It really does look like someone's been styling that mane!
And little Fritzy Boy is getting so big!!!
Posted by: Kerry | July 24, 2006 at 10:01 AM