Laura's zoo visit

As you know Claire and family are visiting from North Carolina since last Friday and all of this week. On Monday I took the opportunity to be the Granddad and took Laura and Marla to the L.A. zoo. The weather was threatening rain but it pretty much held off the whole time we were there. The zoo is in the midst of upgrading the facilities and some of the exhibits were closed but Laura did not care.

(click on the pictures for a larger view)


It is impossible to take a bad picture of this cute little girl! We were waiting for aunt Marla to catch up with us. This is at the zoo entrance and Laura has her gorilla that she received for visiting the zoo.














Laura was captivated by some tiny gazelles in this pen that were standing on their back legs to reach branches in the tree in the enclosure. Believe it or not but one of the gazelles is crouched down behind the bush by Laura. Every time I tried to get it in the picture with Laura the gazelle would duck back down behind the bush. I guess it was shy!











If I remember correctly Laura and aunt Marla are looking at an alligator.

















Marla took this picture and it proves that I was indeed at the zoo with both of them.

The zoo was a bit short on some of the traditional animals such as lions, elephants and the like. Laura wanted to see a camel but when we got to the camel's enclosure an alpaca seemed to have displaced it! No camel to be found. The zoo does seem to have a surplus of wallabies because they were to be found in several different places in the zoo. Good thing they are so cute!


By 3 p.m. I was done even if Laura and Marla weren't and we went home. Laura watched a movie (Hercules) and I took a nap.






Even though this doesn't have anything to do with the zoo I am including this picture of Mary looking sophisticated for a fund raising dinner at St. Nicholas which is the church that the school she teaches at is affiliated with. Who could imagine a lug like me being married to a lady like her?