Road Trip: Day 3

Our foray into Fontenelle Forest yesterday filled our camera's 512 MB memory card, so Sandy took us to SuperTarget today to get a 1 GB memory card for our day at the zoo! We felt it safest to assume that today would be another unbearable day weather-wise, as humid and sweltering as yesterday was, and we planned our day accordingly: get to the zoo early, see as many of the outdoor exhibits as possible before the day really started cooking, see a movie in their IMAX theater in the middle of the day to take a break from the heat, and spend the remainder of the hot afternoon seeing all the indoor animals. As it turned out, the day wasn't so bad--hot, yes, in the afternoon, but mostly breezy and certainly not as humid and sticky as yesterday.

And the zoo was phenomenal! It's Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo, and it seems that whenever I tell someone that I have a sister who lives in Omaha, he/she says, "Oh, they've got a great zoo." Sandy took us here one winter to see the Christmas light displays that the zoo always puts up, but today was our first time actually spending our time just observing the animals. There are lots of 'em to see! Here are some (oh, Faithful Reader, there are so, so many more photos, should you have the interest and time) of the sights from the morning:

We never pass up an opportunity to pose! Here are Sandy, Suzanna, Hillary, and Abigail on a sculpture of lions just inside the entrance to the zoo.

okapi

reticulated giraffe

More posing, this time upon a cute butterfly bench.

Grevy's zebra

bongo

cheetah

More posing, this time on a rhinoceros statue.

birds (I don't know what kind, but they surely are pretty)

More posing, this time on a komodo dragon sculpture.

These are hundreds of koi in a feeding frenzy beneath the bridge over the lagoon! Visitors can purchase food to feed these Japanese carp, and, boy, do the fish ever know it! It was amazing to drop a few pellets of fish food in the water and watch the pisces swarm wherever the food hit the water.

There was a food stand just across the bridge over the lagoon, so we ate dinner there and had some tasty items, including delicious barbecued beef sandwiches followed by ice cream cones for dessert--perfect on a hot summer day. Here are some of the things we saw in the afternoon:

white rhinoceros

African elephant

scimitar-horned oryx

More posing, this time with the Desert Dome visible in the background--here are Suzanna, Susan, Abigail, Sandy, and Hillary.

flamingo (compare)

silverback gorilla

western lowland gorilla

We cooled off during the 2:00 P.M. showing of Wild Ocean 3D: Where Africa Meets the Sea in the Lozier IMAX Theater. It's an interesting movie about marine life off the coast of South Africa, and it's an awesome viewing experience to see it not only in 3D (thus the attractive glasses above) but also on the gigantic IMAX screen with its impressive sound system! However, after many hours walking around outdoors on a hot summer day, it was very nappy in the cool, dark theater, and we had to keep poking one another to make sure everybody saw at least most of the movie!

Bornean orangutan (dig those cheeks!)

There: our Christmas card photo is taken care of!

Siberian tiger

puma

African lion

Amur leopard

Indochinese tiger

white tiger

polar bear

jaguar

Malayan tiger

penguins

shark (which we saw from a tunnel going under/through the aquarium!)

butterfly

hairy desert scorpion

More posing, this time while traversing a rope bridge in the rain forest exhibit (that's Abigail and Hillary, by the way).

Burmese python

Malayan tapir

Nile soft-shell turtle

hippopotamus

"You called?" (I'm looking out at the rain forest from behind a waterfall--pretty.)

The lovely Moberg ladies on an outlook near a waterfall in the rain forest: Suzanna, Abigail, Susan, and Hillary.

Daddy's turn (but on a different outlook).

We ended the day where we started: posing (of course) on the lion sculpture at the entrance to the zoo. This time, Susan and I stood in for Sandy.

When we got to Sandy's house, we were more than ready to scarf down some tasty leftovers (including her glorified rice--just like Mom used to make!). Later Sandy got the girls into the kitchen to bake chocolate chip cookies with her! That was a tasty evening treat. They got to watch 102 Dalmatians while the adults visited. It was another great day in Omaha!

Um, how much help was Hillary?

P.S. Read my sister's version of today!