Diversity

Spur of the moment, Nate and I took a little day trip to the Denver Zoo. The experience was a lot better than any other trip we've taken to the zoo before. Part of that might have been due to us visiting on Friday afternoon only a couple of hours before closing time. The crowds were minimal and the animals were active. I swear I've been to the zoo previously on days where the animals are sleeping/hiding/in the back rooms eating/snoring/flat out ignoring visitors. I might ignore people though if I was stuck in a small cage with only a couple of toys too?! However, on this trip the animals seemed to frolic, play, and just enjoy the nice weather. Kind of like Nate and I did. Well, I might have been the one frolicking (I really like that word), and Nate enjoyed the nice weather... and a concession stand hot dog.

I made friends with a gorilla while at the zoo!

Sleepy sea lions.

We did encounter some sleepy animals at the zoo, but for the most part... they were out and about on the beautiful day. Nate and I had a good laugh at the geese and peacocks that wandered the zoo freely. One peacock came within feet of me as if I was in its way. I'm convinced it was mad that I did not move aside for it. The geese also made their way along the zoo's pathways. I wonder what their favorite zoo exhibit is? We did cross paths with them near bird world. Hopefully they were not taunting the parrots. Nate and I both wondered if the other zoo birds get jealous of the geese coming and going as they please. We may never know.

Visiting geese.

I definitely got in the way of this beautiful bird.

A security guard ushered us out of the Tropical Discovery building, because it was closing time and they wanted us to leave. We did get a chance to see some fun things though before that happened. The mudskipper gobies really amazed me. It's not every day that you get to see a fish with "arms". I wanted to see the little guy (at least I think it was a boy) move, so I blew on its face. Not sure that was the nicest thing to do, but I wanted to see that little thing scoot along the sand. Sure enough, I blew some air it's way... and it blinked a few times. I blew again, and that little mudskipper scooted along with its arm-like fins. That might have been my highlight of the day. It's hard to choose though, because I was pretty amazed the entire time we spent traveling through the zoo.

My cute little mudskipper

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It's probably easier to just go ahead and show you the pictures of the animals we encountered while at the zoo. Hope you enjoy them too.

curious horseshoe crab

 mighty lion

birds swimming

monkey with a mustache

majestic elephants

gigantic giraffes

interesting bird

warthog pacing

camels resting

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There is an extraordinary uniqueness to every creature on this earth. The zoo serves as such a great reminder of diversity. There's so much to learn from our differences. The zoo would be such a boring place if every animal there was a zebra. Incredible!