It's all happening at the ZOO.After making the duitiful visit to doddering father-in-law (who seemed to me to be enjoying a hot pursuit by a woman widows at least twice--- and who neglected to tell us that the Veterans group at the retirement home had gone to HOOTERS!!), we spent the day today at the St. Louis Zoo.
It was overcast, and even rained a bit. The SLZ does not charge admission, but does charge parking. How civilized and advanced!!
Since I'm on the road, I'm handicapped about photos/cropping etc. but I was nearly struck dumb by the awesome sculpture at the SE entrance, called Animals Always, done by Albert Paley of New York and brought to St. Louis on 15 flatbed trucks!!! 
We certainly didn't cover the entire zoo property, but loved the Tigers, Puma, Grizzlies and Brown Bears. The indoor bird area had a charming array of toucans, guinea fowl, and a kookaburra. I didn't know how BIG they are. The penguins were abundant and in a highly chilled indoor area. SMELLED LIKE FISH. Some King Penguins (about 18 inches tall and maybe 6 inches wide) had a chick. It looked about 20 inches tall and 10 inches wide, as if it were wearing a beaver coat from the 1920's. It was HUGE. The docent promised us it would shrink to a "normal size" after it moults.
Then we found the puffins. The labels informed us that puffins and penguins are built almost exactly alike, BUT THAT THEY EVOLVED FROM DIFFERENT ANIMALS. Reminds me of how the Greeks and Chinese invented so many similar things at the same time!! I wonder if they have savior complexes... because they seemed to be trying to walk on water.I took time to do one mediocre sketch in one of the food pavilions. (My feet and legs hurt... and benches were set "out of the way" without very interesting views. I'll post it later.
Yesterday we walked around "Old" St. Charles. Again, not much time to sketch, but I was really amazed by the glazed green bricks.
Tomorrow we drive across Illinois. Wheeeee.
3 comments:
Wah. I am jealous. I want to be there with you and the Big D, going to the zoo and seeing Puffins and green bricks! Wah!!
And, on another note, there's a brand of cereal called Puffins and they're my new favorite and if you collect enough box tops you can adopt and name a Puffin! I'm going to do that...!
The photo with the green bricks is AWESOME! Don't you just love those colors?
:-) Thanks for stopping by -- you need to come out of lurkedom on the EDM group!
I love all the pictures in this post! And you're correct the scupture at that zoo is incredible!
Post a Comment