The Zoo

Let me start by saying that I HATE driving through Pittsburgh...actually, I'm not a big fan of the city in general, nor was Braylon (for college sports rivalry reasons, which he sums up by pointing his thumb down, making an obnoxious noise and then stating "down with Pittsburgh"). But our trip to the zoo sure did change Braylon's mind. By the end of the day he was saying "I like the Zoo-Pittsburgh, but not that other Pittsburgh." Braylon was very excited about getting to see lions and bears initially, but I think he actually enjoyed the aquarium the most.

Bray and his folks!

A few disappointments:

Braylon: No snakes and the lions and most of the bears were sleeping.

Me: No orangutans or chimpanzees or hippos and the glass on the exhibits was very dirty (fingerprints) making it difficult to get a good look at a lot of the animals and even harder to get a good picture.

Drew: Not too impressed with the number/variety of animals in general compared to other zoos he has been to.

But some really cool things (besides the fact that it is so close):

Braylon got to pet a kangaroo and a deer. The lady monitoring the exhibit said the deer was 17 years old...no wonder it just laid there and let the kids pet it.

This one sea lion loved to show off and would smile and blow Braylon a kiss every time it swam past him. Look close you can see its fin up to its mouth for Bray's kiss.

We got to see a brand new baby elephant...just one week old. She looked so tiny next to her mama, but next to one of the zoo employees she was about the size of a pony.

We got to see a one-armed monkey. She was very interested in all the humans staring at her and was probably more aware of us than any other animal we saw.

The penguins were very cool. Some of them loved swimming around as close to us as they could get. It was hard to get good pictures because of the glare from the glass, the fingerprints, and the dim lighting, but I thought this one turned out pretty cool. Notice Bray's reflection in the glass.

Some other penguin pics for Paula. I loved Grandpa penguin...the white one...this penguin could hardly move and looked like he could fall over dead at any time. The other ones knew to leave him alone...I bet he is grouchy in his old age.