We're going to the zoo! How about you?

It was my birthday weekend and I wanted to go to the zoo! We have a great Pittsburgh Zoo and it's always a lot of fun. The weather was gorgeous, in the 70s and with a cloud cover--lovely day. Usually in August the temps are in the 90s with insane harsh sunlight, which makes me miserable, so I couldn't have asked for a better day. Of course, Martie came along, because what's a zoo trip without Martie?

Ready to go! 

It took us about thirty minutes to get to the Zoo, and wow, was it busy. We had to wait just to get a quick snap of the sign.

There are a LOT of big fat koi in this pond, many of them all round with eggs.

Behind Martie is one of our new Komodo dragons. Our first one died last year. This one is a little baby by comparison to the fully-grown one we lost.

This is our new red panda! Martie's not in the picture because I couldn't get her close enough with all the utterly delighted kids crowding around. The kids were really enchanted. I wasn't going to push past them.

Hey, these aren't lawn ornaments! They're actual flamingoes! 

The observation area was shaded, so not a good pic of Martie, but we got some great pics of this lion gnawing on a huge bloody beef bone. Nice kitty....

The springboks were kind of shy.

There's a new baby elephant! You can't see it too well, but it's to the left of these adults--you can just see the back. The adults were being super-protective and making sure we couldn't gawk at the baby. I appreciate their parenting skills, but--baby elephant!! Wahhh!!

Oh, snap. Blocked by mama again!

Okay, maybe the baby elephant is a little bigger than Martie.

And an elephant's lower jaw is also bigger than Martie.

Our cousins the gorillas were outside enjoying the mild weather.

Mostly just a pic of Martie, as the gorilla snorted at the crowd and turned her back on us all! That's what we get for being Looky-Loos!

Isn't this a gorgeous flower?

It'd make a dandy hat, too!

We found Nemo!

Martie made a mermaid friend in the gift shop.

This is the sea lion area. There is a sea lion back by the gate, and she was yelling at another sea lion on that little island. And I do mean YELLING. Wow, they're loud.

You can see her here, when she was taking a 10-second rest from exercising her operatic Valkyrie hollering. I had to wonder what the other sea lion did to warrant it!

Waterfall behind the sea lions, very refreshing.

This deer knows how to pose, awwwwwyeah.

This snake was interested in Martie--VERY interested in Martie. A second after this, he scared the crickets out of us by jumping at her and bonking his snout on the glass. Martie then said that that was enough of the reptiles, thank you.

What a lovely zoo visit we had! Thanks to all for looking at our pics!