Ahh, the Oregon Zoo in Portland. It took me pulling the birthday card to get us there, but we finally made it. I've been there once before, in 2001 I believe, but at Christmastime with Sam and Kam to see the Zoo Lights, so a good deal of the animals weren't out and about because it was all cold and wintery. This time, we lucked out and saw almost every animal the zoo had to offer. Especially the lemurs. You'll see.

There was a giant metal statue that apparently, I could've ridden. No one told me that. Believe me, there would've been some riding.

Now this is a goat. Not one of those wussy kinds they let you pet (not that they let me pet them anyway, because apparently only little kids get that priveledge). These are real goats. Mountain goats. The kind that can weigh up to 300lbs. A goat so impressive they don't even let little kids pet it. If I can't pet it, neither can they.

This is like a Where's Waldo picture. There really is a sea lion here, but I was there and even I can't find it:

Another statue. This one has the benefit of being of an otter. Everything improves when it has something to do with otters.

This zoo had people like me just running wild!

Running right back to the otters, who had more toys than I do.

Leopard spots do work as camouflage!

Apparently we saw tigers, but I think I might've been abducted by aliens at this point since I don't remember them.

These birds looked so pretty. They even drank nectar from the paper cup of a little kid. Then, they swarmed, and about 400 of them all swooped down across the cage (which we were all standing in) and tried to kill us. I am no longer a fan of these birds.

This was a peahen (female version of the more flamboyant peacock). When we left, she remembered that we took this picture and took us for fans, so she tried to follow us home. She followed us right out the front gates. Joshua made us ditch her. Poor thing. (He only goes for the flamboyant ones...)

This was a sad monkey. Monkeys do not belong in zoos. (This is where I would normally go off on how zoos are good for their endangered species breeding programs and their rescue programs, but that some animals should not be captured just for display. Nothing emphasizes this like the monkeys. But I won't do that here. Obviously.)

This was a funky African bird of some sort:

I have no idea what these birds were:

Because those birds were in the same habitat as these very cool red flanked duikers:

Oh look! Goats in a petting zoo area that only little kids get to go into. Whatever, I saw mountain goats. You little kids only get to see the little fake wannabe goats. Jerks.

I hadn't seen a zebra in a long time. Zebras rock:

Even at the time I didn't know what this thing was. It had some cool stripes, but all I could see when I looked at it was it being labeled as "food" on some Discovery Channel special about large African cats:

Some hungry hungry hippos:

I was going to just show pictures of this guy and claim we went to Jurassic Park, but that didn't work out for me.

I love the bear. This guy was like a giant puppy.

And a she-wolf... (I'm sure Joshua took two of the same picture because he wanted to, and not because I was pulling on his sleeve asking if he got a picture of the cute puppy.)

The very furry and very cool musk ox:

This was much cooler before the flash illuminated it all the way.

Poor elephants. They're just not as cute to me during an election year! (Joshua got so worked up he pushed a little kid over and made her cry because she liked the elephants so much).

Joshua's fine self-portrait technique results in a picture of half of me instead of both of us.

The white-cheeked gibbon. A very very smart guy. Endangered, I believe. Cheeky, I'm sure.

Someone made us stay and stare at the ring-tailed lemurs for a very long time. Someone loves lemurs.


The L'Hoest monkey looks a lot like the cheeky gibbon. But it's not. But Joshua took a video of him swinging around, and he looks like he's having a good time.

These were the mandrill's, and I felt really sad for them. They seemed like one of those species of primate that gets offended by eye contact. One got really upset at some little kid staring at him and jumped at the glass, but only briefly, like he knew it was futile. Then he went back to eating leaves. Poor guy. Also endangered.

I think these were the chimps. They didn't photograph very well.

Did you know "orangutan" means something like "people of the woods"? These folks are super smart. Not for staring at in a zoo! I hate how endangered these are, but I guess I'm glad I get the chance to see them up close, since I doubt I'll be wandering around Asian jungles anytime soon.

I want a sunbear so badly, I can't even talk about it. But I want one.

Penguins waddle. I tried to institute "walk like a penguin" day, but Joshua only made it about 3 steps before he gave up. Some people just don't apply themselves.

If you look really really closely, you can see a hummingbird in the middle of these pictures. I never saw a hummingbird in the wild before! They're so tiny!

The hummingbird only occupied me for so long, so eventually I turned to taking Joshua's photograph while he made dinner plans with Sam and Kam.

And eventually, I tried my own hand at self-portraits... I could use some lessons. He shouldn't leave me alone with a camera while he's on the phone!

 

That's really it. Joshua won't let me upload the last picture of him and the giant bear. Overall a great day. (Only bettered by the wonderful birthday breakfast Joshua made me of french-toasted Eggo waffles!) The Dresden Dolls concert we went to after dinner certainly didn't hurt either.