A Day at the Zoo

Yeah, I'm big kid at heart. And as part of my birthday, I decided I wanted to go to the zoo, and see the polar bears & the butterflies ... which are, now that I think about it, about as different & far apart as animals can be LOL.  I went with Mom last Friday, and we had a wonderful time even though it was beastly hot.

Normally when we go to the conservatory it's winter, which means shorter hours in addition to lack of inclination to wander around.  Even though we were mostly there to see the animals, we had to stop & see some flowers too =)  We parked near the conservatory, which you can see in the distance here:

I thought this tree had a face - can you see it or am I loony?

There was a lily show in the sunken garden ... excuse the slightly skewed perspective, but I still liked how the stitched panorama turned out, click to enlarge & realy see more detail:

And the usual assortment of tropical beauties elsewhere:

The bonsai room was unlocked ... is anyone interested in a post just on them?  I took pics of all of them, there were maybe 15 or so, & this 85 year old tree was my favorite because it's so gnarly & off-balance looking, I can imagine it clinging to the side of a cliff somewhere:

A bonus, they have a butterfly tent set up right now!  I should have taken a picture, it was long & shaped & painted like a caterpillar LOL.  It was misting inside, which was also a nice change on this 90+ degree day.  Here are some of the prettiest butterflies.  The green one refused to perch with its wings open, you can just see how much brighter it was inside ... and yes, those moths ARE doing something a bit naughty O.o:

Como isn't a huge zoo, but it's free & it's always a fun experience.  We hadn't really gone through the zoo in years.  Here are a few of the animals we saw:

But the event that really sparked this trip, was that this summer was the unveiling of the Polar Bear Odyssey, a two-year project to turn their habitat into a world class facility for twin brothers Buzz & Neil.  You can click HERE to see the zoo's page all about it including construction photos & other stuff.  While the construction was happening, the 2 bears "vacationed" in Detroit.  It's only been open to the public for a few weeks.

When we first arrived, the bears were nowhere to be seen & I staked out a prime location in one of the windows, so when they ambled out, I was poised to capture the moments!  I felt like as much of a kid as all the shrieking children you can hear in the background LOL:



On the way out, we detoured through the Japanese Garden, which is normally closed when we come in winter.  So quiet, super peaceful, would be a wonderful place to write or meditate:

I basically took pictures until my battery died LOL.  Then I had to charge it, because the next day we went to the Mayowood "gardens" ... not quite as fun of an experience, especially since it was ridiculous hot & muggy again ... but that's a story for another post =)  Thanks for reading.

~Colette