This place is a zoo...

Literally. Steph and Dan have an annual membership for the zoo. It was an absolutely lovely day - not too hot, not too cool, plenty of sunshine, not windy... I put on my hiking boots. We were not the only ones off to the zoo; a sign near the entrance let us know that there was no parking left in the main lot. After stalking around a bit, we found a spot in a nearby lot. Yep, there are a lot of people here; fortunately, the Phoenix Zoo is huge and it opens up a bunch after you get in the entrance gates.

This is a great zoo - nicely laid out in rolling hills. While it makes for using more leg muscles, it feels more like a park, with winding pathways, large ponds, and open exhibits. Some are open to the point where you are in with the animals.

A look around...


Here be dragons...
Baby komodo dragons, that is.

A bad hair day...

In your face...

And a boat ride! Out on a paddle boat...
We had Steph and Dan take the front; the "premise" was: it's your membership. In use: they could do the paddling. Joan and I sat in back, with the Captain giving occasional heading and steering advice.

We were able to paddle up fairly close to turtles and white pelicans...

I think this was my favorite part... not just because the pelicans reminded of the Tropical Tip, but because I got to sit and rest my tired feet while someone else propelled us around. ;-)

King of the beasts...

With the weather being so pleasant, most of the animals were out moving around in their sizable pens. We didn't have the disappointment of them being "shaded up" because of the heat.

We finished our time there with another treat: getting to pet stingrays...

It's a large tank with dozens of rays swimming about. It was apparent that some of them liked being petted while others were more aloof. More "water time". OK, this may have been my favorite part. ;-)

Afterwards, it was off to Texas Roadhouse to take care of the appetite we worked up while hiking around the zoo. Yeah, it was my favorite part.