In the Words of Paul Simon...

It's all happening at the zoo.



In a bizarre turn of events, The Hubba and I decided to leave the house on a football Saturday and head to the North Carolina Zoological Park (we weren't entirely out of our minds; we taped UT's game).

What a day for zoo visiting! We've had, in the past, odd choices on times to go to the zoo. July 29th around one o'clock seems to be a favorite of ours. Not yesterday. Yesterday was cool, crisp and gorgeous.


(shot from the car, arm out the window, camera band wrapped no-blood-flow-to-that-region-tightly around my wrist)

The NC Zoo, we discovered, is worth a visit as much for the foliage as for the animals. They've literally carved a many-miles zoo into the middle of a forest and except for the fact we're all aware gorillas aren't usually so perfectly poised in front of a backdrop of gold, red, and orange leaves, it works.



And good grief, were the animals out and about yesterday! Perhaps due to our poor zoo timing, a lot of previous zoo visits involved us squinting through the glass, me saying, "I think its that dark shapeless thing. See it? Back there, through all the brush? Lying on its side, having a little rest. Hi rhino!" and The Hubba responding, "That's not a rhino, that's a rock."

Not yesterday. Yesterday, we saw activity.


(the cougar)

Admittedly some were still less active than others, with that "You talkin' to me?" expression honed from many semesters at the Bobby DeNiro "When I Get on the Other Side of this Glass" School of Quadrupeds.







Really felt this guy was saying "Did you guys hear something? Seriously, did you hear that?"


The lions were made up of a mom, a dad, and one-year-old triplets, two daughters and a son, and I'm telling you right now, if Mama Lion could have gotten hold of some Ritalin, she would have been force-feeding it to Sonny. This kid just didn't get it. The other four were content to lay around, sleep, occasionally roll over, or lick the empty food bowl. Not Sonny.







He finally went too far and Mama sprang and, in lion, so this is a rough translation, said, "Would you just LAY the *$@# DOWN?!"



Who knew lions had that kind of vocabulary? Must be DeNiro again.

One of the sisters, I can only assume she's related in some way to Sting and Trudie Styler, did get up at one point and show off her yoga skills...


(downward-facing cat)

and no one said a word to her. I distinctly heard the word "show-off" being muttered from the direction of Sonny.

The chimps were lovely.





Talk about soulful.

Well, maybe not this guy.


("Oh look, a penny!")


("No- wait- that was poop. But still good.")


(Not so happy later. "I know right? Grooming in public. Could she BE anymore embarrassing?")


The gorillas brought up an interesting question.







I ask you: half Wally, half dog? Or half gorilla, half bear?

I had a realization at the Rhino exhibit about people and our powers of deduction. Though warned before walking out onto the platform by signs reading "Rhinoceros," with pictures, drawings, statements about their natural habitat, eating habits, and population level posted everywhere, the word "Rhinoceros" peppered liberally throughout, every person I saw walked out onto the platform and exclaimed, "Oh look! A rhino!" I include myself in this discerning group.



Synchronised noshing. Expect it at the 2008 Olympics.




These elephants were in a mood. Lots of tail grabbing and pushing from the big male elephant and coy bottom showing on the part of the female. A family arrived a few minutes after us, and when the children weren't screaming as though receiving root canal with no drugs, they were shouting, "Look, they're fighting!" and the father was agreeing, "Yep, something like that."



We finished off back in the North America exhibit and saw a pretty spectacular idea of what this country looked like two hundred years ago...




... minus the fence.

American Bison and American Elk peacefully cohabitating . Had this exchange with The Hubba.

Me: He looks just like the elk in the commercial.
The Hubba: The Hartford? That commercial?
Me: Yes.
Me: I don't get that commercial.
The Hubba: Don't worry, babe. No one gets that commercial.

Also, in an effort to incorporate DMB, we decided the song "American Baby Intro" is actually "American Bison Intro," whipped out the I-Pod and played it, softly, for the Bison. Yes, we are weird. But I think the Bison appreciated it.

We ended on the American Black Bears. These guys were done with screaming kids, camera flashes, and calls of "Oh look! A black bear!" for the day. They really showed their- well-



I leave it to your imagination.

It was an excellent day. We came home, watched the second half of the game (UT scraped it out), and were both asleep on the sofa around nine-thirty. Who knew hiking a five or six mile trail could be more exhausting than screaming "Throw the flag! Are you blind?! THROW THE FLAG!" for four hours straight.