Look. I’m the first to admit that looking at zoo photos are not exciting. But the St. Louis zoo is so much more than just animals. It’s a stroll through a park where you happen upon lions & penguins. Best of all, it’s free.
We headed down the day after roller coasters….. leisurely, due to the heavy rains that morning. Note to self: plan vacations around storms. We arrived at the zoo/park and were literally the only ones wandering around for a few hours. Who doesn’t enjoy a nice walk in the rain? I do, as long as I have appropriate shielding. The hood to head ratio of a rain jacket is so crucial. If head is too big and hood is too small, disaster could strike. You know, like runny mascara. I foresaw my fate and asked R. if we could switch jackets since he was wearing a baseball cap. He finally agreed.
You can’t hear him muttering, but believe me, he was.
The rain stopped shortly after we left the building and so had to exchange jackets once again. I really don’t know why I shared that experience. Maybe to oil you up for the onslaught of zoo photos.
I spent the majority of the time chasing peacocks
into scary overgrown bushes.
So I wanted to capture what it felt like to walk through the St. Louis Zoo. Almost every pathway was lined with trees and/or brush of some sort. Except for this open part below, you were hardly hit with the “wow, i’m really at a zoo” thought. Does anyone ask that to themselves anyway? I digress. Like the little bridge below, that’s original to the park from the early 1900s. Also, some of the exhibits were built in the 1920s and have been maintained since. A very cozy feeling.
Okay, so this is where things started to get weird. It must have been the weather or something because almost all of the animals were active. And I don’t mean they just yawned several times (I take any movement as a zoo victory), but I mean they were running around their cages. The rhinos, the bears, the elephant. Wait, no. The elephant was the only animal that stood by a wall and ate. As we walked to the leopard’s cage, we noticed him leaning back on his haunches and watching something. I followed his line of sight and saw…
these guys. They were going wild! They would jump up and bite leaves off the tree, and run around bucking at each other. They must’ve finally found out about horizontal stripe rule and were in the middle of the “Why me, God??” phase. Do they make zebra girdles?
Anyway, so the leopard would lean back on his haunches and then leap off his rock to chase down the zebras. He would jump up on the fence, trying to claw his way out. Even though there was a cage, it was terrifying how quickly he’d run and jump! At the same time, though, it is nice to know that some of their wild instinct is still intact.
After barely escaping the leopard’s wrath, we encountered a historic sighting. Well, we thought it was. A camel peeing! It must be rare since they never drink water.
Lastly, I rounded out my kid day by taking a kid-at-the-zoo photo. With the hippos. A classic.
P.S. Throughout the day, we took photos of animals that resemble us. Here’s one we found of R.
cuethebanjo.com 
