Our Seattle, WA, City Passes covered a lot of territory, so we decided we would start at the north end of the city with Woodland Park Zoo. We were lucky to find a parking space because the zoo was very crowded. I guess I should have expected that on such a beautiful summer Saturday!
Generally, they seemed to have just two of each animal but they did have quite a variety. We couldn't include all of them in the blog, but here is a sampling.
Zebras were first - they had a big place - Maybe the zookeeper had favorites?
In one of the many aviaries, we saw some Weavers. The males split long leaves and actually weave nests. The females inspect their work and if they find it to their liking they move in, feather the nest, lay eggs and raise babies. If no female finds the nest acceptable, the male tries again until he gets it right.
Outside of TV, I don't think we have ever seen a Komodo Dragon this big. We saw alligators in Florida that weren't this big. I would estimate he was 10 feet long and weighed at least 200 pounds.
He is not green. There is a green light shining on him.
Apparently, he can read and he did not like what it said.
Joani was fascinated by these bats. I figured they were so ugly they were cute, but ultimately, Joani decided there was just nothing cute about them.
Indian Flying Fox is also known as the Greater Indian fruit bat (about 12 inches long when all folded up).
His wingspan is over 3 ft, but he never opened more than one wing for us.
I think he stuck his tongue out at me.
I think he stuck his tongue out at me.
I do prefer the pair below!
Cockatiel
The bears appeared to be a bit neurotic or maybe just bored. They paced back and forth along the rocks in their habitat. Occasionally, they would mix it up a little and pace back and forth to the water.
Since we had just been to the Grand Tetons, we knew elk shed their antlers every year but this display showed us just how quickly they grow back - I had thought it was a much slower process.
A few of the animals we didn't include here (and we certainly don't have anything against them) were the giraffes, hippos, gazelles, lions, jaguars, snow leopards, snakes, penguins, wolves, warthogs, tapirs, flamingos, eagles, owls, red pandas, sloth bears, monkeys, gorillas, anything in the insect house and we did skip the farm animals altogether, since we were pressed for time. I'm sure there were more, but I am moving on.
After the park, we drove to the docks for a cruise. It was even more crowded than the area around the zoo! We circled for at least 30 minutes trying to find a parking spot. I think we had perfect weather for the cruise - mostly sunny and about 70 degrees. The cruise narrator pointed out a lot of interesting Seattle landmarks (like Pike Street Market and the first Starbucks) and gave us a lot of Seattle history.
Seattle from our Argosy Cruise on Elliott Bay and Seattle Harbor.
We thought we would take in the Seattle Aquarium after the cruise but it closed at 5:00, so we went back to City Center to watch a sunset from the Space Needle. The actual sunset was not too exciting, but the view of Seattle after dark was very nice.
We could see into the Chihuly Garden from the Space Needle climb.
The sun was setting and casting a shadow of the Needle on a skyscraper.
Seattle at night.
After being gone all day, Sam was happy to see us get back. We spent some quality time playing with him and gave him a few extra snacks before turning in.
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