I'm Still Here!!!!!

I have been busy. So many things have been going on. The Expo, great. The writer's conference, great. And now a visitor for the weekend, also great. Well, fantastic. My pal from university in Michigan came visit for a long weekend. Her first day we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park. It was awesome! The leaves on the trees changing, the crisp air. It wasn't too hot or cold. Just perfect. Unfortunately there were 200+ kids there but not til the end. This pic is of the marshlands. Did you know cattails are edible? You can boil the roots for stew, eat the leaves in a salad, and grind the dried roots to make flour. The whole thing is usable.

This was one of the many sculptures throughout the park. Made of marble, it depicts all the eggs of the different critters found in the marshlands and how they relate in size to each other. The oblong one belongs to a snake.

Harbor Seal swimming around and having fun. There were two pups but they weren't cooperating for a photo op.

Another one of the sculptures, this one of the river otters. Once abundant in NC, but rarely found.

He gave me a wonderful shot. I begged him to look up before the horde of kids stormed in. And he did. Isn't he cute? I love otters. Little river, big river (like in South America) and sea.

Bison. Huge!!!!

Black Bamboo. I thought it all was green. Learn something new everyday.

My favorite place was the reptile exhibit and these tropical frogs. I love them. Now I have to do some research. Like I have time for anything else. But they were so cute. No more than two or three inches. And they move fast. So pretty.

A black and yellow guy. Didn't get much info because of the stampede of little ones. They were loud too.

This is a Victoria Crown Pigeon. About two feet tall and can fly. One flew over my head.

An Eclectus Parrot. Very loud. Scared many people, young and old. It was great seeing grown men jump.

African violets.

Elephant.

Giraffes.

Repeat.

Alligator. Very large. Signs all over saying that yes, they were alive, and to leave them alone. I was waiting for a bright person to climb over the barrier. I wasn't lucky this time.

Pumas, Mountain Lions, Cougars. Check out those feet!

More gators.

This was an artificial geyser. There are several small ones and when they went off, they scared me. Silly me.

Plants of the desert area.

This one was very pretty. Further along the trail I got to see how big they get. Medicine ball size.