Get ready for a long post...The Capital Zoo!

Simon and I set out Sunday in the early afternoon for a bike ride. He'd been craving these hamburgers that we saw at a pub on Friday night, which didn't open til 2:30, so we thought we'd kill time riding around. I really wanted to go left on the street behind our apartment, because I knew there was a really nice bike path since I'd run that way a week before. So that's what we did. It was a nice ride for the most part, not too strenuous on me and my one-speed bike. We stopped and took some pictures along the way.

A black swan in the same lake on the opposite end.

Then I decided to pull the same trick I did at Venice Beach and had the camera on and around my neck so I could snap shots along the ride. These are some of them :-)

We went on the path through a number of fields.

Simon riding through a path of trees.

So, we had *just* decided it was probably time to turn back, since we were at the top of a hill that looked daunting to climb back up, when Simon saw this sign from a distance (this photo was taken with 26x zoom!). I got really excited and did my best to convince Simon that it would be a really cool experience. Luckily it worked!

I'm not the biggest fan of seeing animals in cages normally, and I don't necessarily support zoos that breed in captivity, but it sounded like a lot of the animals were rescued, and it was a neat way to see a lot of animals that we've never seen before and may never get a chance to see in the wild. So I put my hesitations aside and went for it based on that decision.

So, there are TONS of pictures that follow. I realize it may get boring, as I got a little snap happy, but I wanted to show them all since I had the blog in mind as I took pictures of nearly everything we saw. I can't remember what each of them are, but I'll try my best :-)

These Capuchins were the first guys we saw. They were hilarious. I wish I could move and dangle that gracefully!

I think these guys are Tamarins. They were in the same general area as the Marmosets.

Guinea Pigs! I had to take a picture because it seemed so out of place for them to be in the Marmoset cage. Hopefully they aren't food!

I believe these are the Marmosets.

This is a Sun Bear. There were two of them who were rescued, I don't remember the whole story, but it was a male and a female and a few years ago they had a cub. Two of them didn't really want to come out of their cages, but this guy was out and about a lot.

One of the Sun Bears that chose to stay by their cave.

We saw a LOT of sleeping animals, probably because it was so hot out. These are sleepy lions. There are two of them lying under the tree.

This is a White Lion. There was a tour of kids with a guide who was feeding the lion, which is why it's looking so patiently at the gate there.

Pacing and wanting food!

This is a pretty peacock. I actually missed these guys because I was so enthralled by the firefoxes, but Simon got a few pictures of them. I was hoping they'd sell the discarded/shed feathers in the gift shop, but no such luck!

Here are a few shots of the Red Pandas/Firefoxes. They look like red Racoons almost, but the closest relative is the panda. I had heard about them before because of Mozillas plea to help them, but seeing them live was something altogether different. They're pretty awesome. And sadly, like so many animals, endangered.

SO CUTE!!

Meerkats! They were being fed and were hilarious to watch. Very jumpy and excitable. And super cute and tiny too.

This was another Capuchin location. This guy was fishing, which was great to watch. They were pretty jumpy too.

These are De Brazzas. I'd never heard of them before Sunday, but they remind me of Rafiki from the Lion King.

So we were checking out the Zebras along this walkway, where I snapped tons of pictures, and on our way out a lady was walking by with two dogs. So naturally we wanted to know what the deal was. We were wrong, they weren't dogs, they were dingos! I don't think I'dve ever known the difference. Apparently they aren't always this friendly, but the two we met were. They weren't terribly interested in me though, and apparently it was because they'd just spent an hour with a group of kids. I think I would've wanted rest too!

Oh the Zebras. There were Elands and Zebras in the same location. And of course there was a baby zebra, so I got about 1400 pictures of it. So cute!

Maybe it's hard to tell, but this guy is tiny! Well, compared to Momma at least :-)

This is an Eland. Not really sure what they're about. Too distracted by the Zebras.

Feeding time! We were lucky, a lot of the animals were sleeping but the ones that weren't were being fed, so there was a lot of action.

Speaking of action, we got to see Giraffes up close and personal too. They were TAAAAAALLLLL! Though for some reason I expected their bodies to be shorter and necks longer. That being said, they were still SUPER tall. I think I could've fit well underneath their bodies, probably with a foot or two to spare.

Hehehe. So cool.

This is a lemur. He was moving a lot so this was the best picture I could get!

I am sad to say this wasn't the first Kangaroo I saw, but it was the first live one. On the way to Culburra last week there were a few on the side of the road leaving Canberra. So sad. It was cool to see them up close and personal though. We had to go into a large encaged area and then there was only a log area to separate us from them, which was pretty cool. This one was VOGUEing for me.

Wallabies! It took me a while to realize that I wasn't looking at baby kangaroos. They were pretty great too. Move much like the kangaroo does.

Grandma and Grandpa Kangaroo.

So here was the *only* disappointing part of my tour. There were two cages with Tasmanian devils in them, and they could roam freely between the two. Simon saw one briefly, but by the time I got there he'd gone. Even after 5-10 minutes of me refusing to go anywhere til I saw one, I realized that we might be there all day. So we left and I didn't get to see one *sob*!

This is a Snow Leopard. A sleepy one, at that!

The next two pictures are of Tigers. One was Bengal, and I can't remember what the other one was. Sy...can't remember. Anyway, we weren't sure which was which, but they were both sleeping which made it hard to tell too.

This is a wombat. They are pretty common roadkill here too, sadly. Wish I could've seen what he looks like, apparently they are pretty cuddly looking. For those of you familiar with Aussie terminology, Simon's Uncle said that bad boyfriends here are commonly referred to as wombats, because a wombat 'eats roots and leaves'. (This is one of those PG13-R rated terms, but it's pretty funny!)

On the map this was referred to as "Little Penguin Island", which I thought meant the Island was little, but it turned out it was the penguins! Wow they were cute. There was someone standing watching them and when he went to leave the penguins followed him across the grass, which was hilarious to watch. Wonder if they thought he was daddy penguin.

Oh, the Koalas. Pretty much my main reason for wanting to visit the zoo. I could hear Aunt Cindy in the back of my mind asking if I'd seen one yet, and I couldn't disappoint her any longer! There were two of them, and this guy clearly had a rager of a night the night before, because he looked like he was a *little* under the weather!

This one, on the other hand, was chomping away on a eucalyptus tree. I have a video of about a minute long of her doing this, because it was so mesmerizing. I tried loading it onto here yesterday but it didn't work for some reason, so I'll have to post it to youtube or something. She looked like she was having fun.

After watching the other koala we visited this guy again, who moved but not by much!

BEST. FACE. EVER!

We did a loop so were back at the meercats again. This one looked exactly like I have seen them look so much on Discovery!

Female pigeon and baby!

Last up was the Aquarium, which was a nice break from the heat. Sadly the tour group of kids was in there too so it was a little noisy!

Shark! There were a few different ones in this donut-shaped tank. This one was nowhere near the biggest, or the fastest since I could actually capture it. The biggest one was far too fast for my camera. It was HUGE.

I saw an eel just like this snorkeling in Hawaii in October. It was a little more intimidating to be in the ocean with it, rather than looking at it through plexiglass!

There was more than once that I was in the aquarium section very happy not to have Harry Potters parseltongue abilities. Not that the snake would have hurt me, I guess. They were all huge though!

Baby crocodiles. They look tiny and cute but they will grow up to be really big and scary!

Another snake. Wish I'd photographed all of their names. This one was for sure sizing me up for lunch!

Chameleon! (you come and go, you come and goooooo)

Tree frogs! Again I thought of Aunt Cindy. I tried to get a good picture for you for your DVDs, but no such luck. They were either facing away or moving too fast!

This one may need closer inspection. The white part is the snakes old skin that it had recently shed, and the snake is on the branch as well.

Petting a baby crocodile. It felt pretty much like you'd expect - dry and scaly :-)

This is a Zebra eel, I think. Definitely Zebra, can't remember if it was an eel or what it was.

Manta rays.

And finally, as we were leaving the aquarium, were the brown bears. I have no idea how they were dealing with the heat. I'm from the same climate as they are, without all the fur, and *I* was having trouble with the heat!!

So there you go. Lots of pictures, hopefully that will be good for a while because classes start this week so I don't know how many I'll be taking!

Today I went to a lecture by a guest from SFU of all places, which was funny. He confirmed my suspicion though, unless you're working for this one particular project, there really aren't many international relations opportunities in Vancouver. Boo! After that I went on a library tour because I'm a nerd and because my first paper is due in a few weeks (already!!). Then Simon and I went into town and he finally got the burger he was craving.

Tomorrow I've got another library tour then we're headed to a few travel centers to see what we can do about getting tickets to the Rugby World Cup, because part of it is when we're off in September (sadly, Canada and New Zealand don't play until a few weeks after classes start up again). So I think we're going to try to see Tonga/Canada and maybe a Scotland game (Miriam, Arthur, Les, you should all come too!!), and whatever else we can see. I'd love to see NZ play at home, but naturally the price is much higher for those games!

As for the weather, it was a beautiful day, warm in the sun but quite cool in the shade. Now the cloud has arrived though, so who knows what that will mean for tomorrow.

Til soon! Chelsea