Day 4--Oh what a zoo!

And I don't mean the animals.

On Day 4 of our trip, we got up and went to the zoo.  At our first attempt, we'd seen that parking fills up fast.  And Denver heat climbs quickly.  So if we got there early, before all the traffic, and before the temps rise, we'd have a good time.  Right?  yeahno.

We arrived around 9:30ish, which is pretty early.  The zoo opens at 9.
The parking was full-ish, but not packed yet.  In fact, we found a pretty good spot.
We got into the park, saw some animals, and then ran smack dab into the herd.  Denver Zoo has lots of animals, but not enough of one species to form a herd.
I speak of the young children and clueless mothers herd.  They cluster together and run from place to place, screaming and yelling and pointing and making me twitch while the mothers conglomerate and discuss their childbirth stories.
One or two children I can handle, even if they're screaming.  However, there was 20+ kids in one place, ranging from ages 0-5.  (Dear daycare professionals:  You have my respect, despite the fact that I think you're mentally questionable.)
We entered a place where no stroller can go.  Where there is, in fact, a stroller parking area.  That there's a need for this area boggles my mind.

ANYWAY.
The heat was high, too.  I believe it was 80ish while we toured the zoo, on top of some rather staggering humidity (for Denver).  Most of the animals were seeking shade and conforming their bodies to it so they could stay cool.  For that reason, we didn't get may pictures of cats.
While being hot, sticky and irritated by children, we saw animals as quickly as we could so we could return to the room of air conditioning and quiet.  Some exhibits we didn't even bother going into because there's a limit to how much sweat-to-water ratio I'm willing to suffer.

And since I didn't have the patience to actually get a description of the animals I was taking pics of, you'll have to make due with the descriptions I have.

I have to say the animals seemed to have gotten a memo about our visit.  A lot of the pictures we got were of rear ends.  Some of them were even in focus.  The pictures below are really only a fraction of how many were taken and slightly acceptable.
Note to self:  Next time, only bother taking pics if the critters are facing you.

Some big porcupine.  I felt as prickly as it looks that day.

Itty bitty deer (dwarf deer, if I remember correctly)

There's a lion laying in the shade right in the middle.

whosit and whatsit

Hyena

Here kitty kitty

Leopard

Yay tiger!

Same tiger.  So pretty.

Giraffe--black tongues.

Polar bear being led out to treats

crazy fact:  polar bears have been interbreeding with kodiak bears, possibly to deal with the loss of habitat & feeding areas?

nomnomnom!

Another polar bear being treated

Arctic fox?

otters being playful

back and forth they swam

pants reflection--can only be found at the Denver Zoo

The rainforest room foliage

tri-colored squirrels?

little lizard

snakes

Big Catfish

another snake

an iguana?

fishes & rays

The ray smiling at us

more cool fish

giant reef aquarium

Sea horse!  (See, I know one for sure)

A lion fish

big blow fish

sea urchin (the prickly things)

shrimp

komodo dragon

I stuck my tongue out right back at it

Alligator

turrrrtle

colorful frogs

Sea lion?

peacock

camels--two humped

Peacock attack!  actually pretty funny--mom thought it'd be nice to have a picnic on the grass.  kids will be making her pay for therapy for the next ten years because of their terror of peacocks

nomnomnom

you lookin at me?

Mongolian desert horses?

Fox sleeping in a log

I think they're bat-eared foxes?

single-humped camel

okapi

read about them in a book when they were still considered "mythical" animals

The new Asian Tropics exhibit construction

Lots of birds

The cutest little owl I've ever seen

A rarely seen robin!

Sparrows taking advantage of some food

Primates

one of my siblings

This little guy was about the size of my palm

my other sibling

Monkey island

Stork and pelican

He wants to come see us

Mountain goat

Ram

That's a cheetah, again, laying in the shade

It's a kangaroo!

turtle & bird.  Impressive, right?  You can almost never get a turtle to hold still long enough for a picture....

Giraffe sculpture at the entrance.  Even that was showing me it's rear end!

Then & Now

I have a couple more posts of pictures to add from the trip, but I just wanted to do a tiny comparison to 10 years ago when the Mister & I exchanged vows.

10 years ago:
He was on forced unemployment because he wasn't a citizen.  Basically he had about a 7 month vacation.
We lived with my parents.
I was working a temp job.
My wedding dress was the most expensive part of the wedding, I think.
He was a mechanic.
I had no idea what I was going to major in.
He spent his days (during the summer) flyfishing and hanging around the house.  He used to bake cookies or pick up coffee orders and take either or both to my Mom and her office mates at work.
Our "honeymoon" was 1 1/2 days in the cabin where we got married.  It was hot (hello?  mid-July?) and un-air conditioned and quiet.
We had Gunner, Matt's rambunctious Jack Russell Terror.  ;o)

Nowadays:
He works 10 hours a day, minimum, at least 5 days a week, sometimes 6.
I'm currently unemployed and keeping house.
He's no longer a mechanic, now he's a manager at a car dealership.
We own a house.  Sometimes Mom stays with us.
We finally went on a real trip, for a whole week!  It was busy and hot (hello?  mid-July?) and fun.
The most expensive thing we own is the house.
I'm a college graduate with a degree in geography.
I know I'd love to be a cartographer.
He never flyfishes anymore.  He does hunt, though.  And finally got his bull elk last year.

We have Amber and Lily, two sweet, hairy Golden Retrievers.  Between the shedding of the two of them, I think I could create another dog.

And we have a cat!
He's a US citizen!  (You can feel free to clap)

Between now & then we've lived in 2 different basement apartments, owned 3 different cars, lived only in Montana, been apart a total of maybe 20 days/nights and talk on the phone to each other at least once every single day.
Our life together is full, happy and lovely.  I can't imagine being anywhere other than by his side.

Electric storm

Our second night of the trip, after being moved to a better room--on a higher floor--we "enjoyed" watching a lightning storm from our balcony.

Day 3, part 2

After running into Maya and mom again, we parted ways.  Off we went to find the top floor of the museum, which supposedly has the best view in Denver.
We went through the bird exhibit and finally found the elevators.  Up we go...we finally arrive at the terrace!  I take 2 or 3 pictures, we may have been there about 15 seconds when a couple of museum guards came onto the terrace to announce that they had to close the terrace due to the lightning strikes in the approaching storm.  Fine, fine, I snap a few more pictures, then some more while we wait for the elevator to get to us.  Damn it.

So back down we went.  We ended up on the second floor again, in an atrium that overlooked the area we'd been above on the terrace.
We thought we'd hang out for a minute and watch the storm...

And....there's Maya!

Apparently Maya and mom had the same idea.  They'd just finished at the pirate exhibit with some booty.  So we hung out with them awhile longer and visited while the storm stormed outside.
Then we said we were going to go finish our visit and Maya asked us if we wanted to come with them.  She became our tour guide.  She mostly ignored me and lavished all her energy on the Mister.  And on our anniversary!  What a jerk.  ;o)

Maya tries to dock a space shuttle

And then just jumps on Mister's lap and looks at what he was looking at

Massive globe.  Bestill my heart.  -sigh

Meteorite--probably pretty hard to lift, but kooks are out there

cool meteorite

Mister & I thought the patterns on this resembled the Allspark from the Transformers.

Swimming through the air.

Following the space exhibit, we joined Maya in the gift shop.  I wandered about while Maya showed things to the Mister.  He bought her a rock and gave it to her as we were saying our goodbyes.  Oh, if only I'd gotten a picture of her face!  She just lit up and looked overjoyed that he'd gotten her a rock!  Such a small thing, but I bet that's her favorite thing for awhile....

We headed back to the hotel after that and then to a delish dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  It's owned by brothers that moved to the area from Italy years ago.  We shared a bottle of champagne to toast to "10 more years--we don't want to get carried away" and enjoyed the food and then went back to the hotel.

I will say now--yay for air conditioning!  While we were in Denver it rained every night and then managed to get into the 90's every day.  So the humidity was pretty high with the temps and the zoo felt like a sauna when we went.