party animals

We spent the afternoon at the Santa Barbara Zoo today, compliments of Alex's company, which held its annual picnic there. The food left much to be desired (slim pickins for vegetarians) but the location was fantastic. After a sorry plateful of potato salad, Alex and I took off on our own to explore. It turned out to be a much-needed respite from the grind of work and home improvements (more on the latter, soon). Here are a few photos from our adventure.

Alex and Nancy aboard the Zoo Train (which is really designed for people one third our size).


The entertaining Asian otters.


The snow leopard was breathtakingly beautiful. But it's difficult, psychologically, to see it in captivity, the case for most of the animals, actually.


I love the cross-eyed South American sculpture forming the background of the flamingo habitat.


A pretty parrot pair.


This was the only penguin (of about 12) who had a name on its fin band. Meet Peggy the penguin. (My mom will love to know she has a namesake at the SB Zoo!)


Me in the succulent garden. I still like mine better, humble as it is.


One of two amazing bald eagles. They are both rescues. We saw them just as they were being fed dead mice. Yum.


Alex poring over the zoo map. We couldn't risk missing anything, of course. When Alex does something, he does it right!


A lovely view of the bird refuge next to the zoo, looking toward Montecito.


A squirrelly little meerkat -- one of my favorite creatures at the zoo.


A friendly giraffe, waiting to be fed.


A finally, the marvellous, majestic lion.