Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

cattitude and I got up fairly early (well, by Sunday standards, which is to say before 8 a.m.) and headed to the zoo a little after ten. Getting there early was nice, because it meant fewer crowds. We didn't try to see everything: just the sea lions, a few minutes someone showing off birds of prey, Madagascar, the Congo, giraffes, and the butterfly garden. One of the butterflies landed on my hand and stayed a minute or so, which is always nice. We also saw a few other birds that were on our way, like the flamingoes. On the way out, having decided to skip Tiger Mountain to save energy, we saw a sign that it is closed indefinitely because of storm damage. So, less than we might have wanted, but we had fun, and got some good photos. (No, my camera doesn't have a manual focus, but I had better angles and got a few reasonable pictures of the okapis.)

Also, having tried putting my new boots on early in the day, I am hopeful: I walked around the apartment a little, and wore them for about 3/4 of an hour, mostly while sitting and playing Scrabble.

I've posted some zoo photos, and a few from the park, to Flickr (rosvicl). ( Two crested couas, one butterfly, and two okapis: )