One more new haunt

Gus' aunt came into town this weekend; she lives up at Twin Lakes, near Coeur d'Alene, in the family cabin. We were thrilled to get a chance to hang out with her. We won't be going up to the lake this summer because my family will be getting together to spread my uncle's ashes and Gus can only take so much vacation, and so we were happy for her to get a chance to see Chie. And, well, she's a hoot. We're always happy to see her.

Anyway, we decided to venture out together yesterday and chose the zoo, hoping for good weather. And we were richly rewarded by brilliant sun. We wandered around for the better part of four hours, and though we completely tired ourselves out, we all had a blast together. The zoo has changed a lot since we were kids. But a lot of it was designed to open up the animal's habitats, which is always a good thing. And seeing it through Chie's eyes made it a whole new experience.

Note: Most of the shots are by Gus. Also of note is that there are no pics of Pinkie. I'm still not sure how she managed to stay out of the frame. There are a few shots of the back of her head, but nothing that really captured her.



It was Packy's birthday (P-town's famous elephant) and so there were all sorts of festivities for him, including a giant birthday cake.



Many of the celebrants wore Packy ears. We differed.



This was one of our first stops. He was perched right by the viewing screen.



We made our way down into the Northwest area, where we found the new petting zoo. Chie was totally in love with the goats. I think that most of all, she loved having an animal that would just sit there and chill instead of running away!



I did encourage her to "Be gentle." She kept tugging on his ears, though.



We stopped and had lunch in the AfriCafe, and then went into the Africa area. This was my favorite place to work when I was a junior zoo keeper.



I thought this was really striking.



I came into this area first and excitedly called to Gus. It was the perfect shot.



We were just about finished by this point. Thankfully, the grizzly was perfectly placed.



We went through Steller Cove again to head out. Gus' dad is just over my shoulder.