Atlanta Zoo

Today we went to the Atlanta Zoo. Lane's parents bought us an annual family pass for Christmas. Today was the 1st day that it A) the weather actually cooperated and it wasn't raining or cold and B) was a weekend that we didn't have any other obligations going on. The weather was nice and warm - in the mid to upper 60's. We were able to get through the zoo in about 3 hrs time. Granted there were exhibits we didn't spend a lot of time at. Not all animals float our boat. We did spend a lot of time watching the giraffes (it was mating season by the way so the male was trying to cozy up to one of the females with his you-know-what sticking out). She ended up walking away. LOL!

Above is the male that was all over one of the 2 females at the zoo.

The lions were lounging in the sun. The zoo has 4 of them. Unfortunately I don't really like how they have some of the animals set up because they're difficult to see.

We took a few minutes on several occasions to take a break. This was a great photo of Eriks. But it's not very often that I take a bad photo of that cutie.

Our favorite part of the zoo today was of course...THE PANDAS!!! The pandas that are currently on exhibit at the zoo are on loan from the Chengdu Conservatory. If I'm not mistaken, all the pandas in the US at zoos are on loan from China. I know the prominent conservatory is Chengdu but I'm positive there is at least 1 of 2 more.

This is the best panda exhibit I've seen thus far. The pandas are right there. There are 4 pandas at the zoo 2 adult females, 1 adult male and 1 female baby who is 7 months old. You'll see a photo of her below.

We showed up at just the perfect time - meal time! Below is one of the 2 females.

Lane and Eriks in front of the panda who was eating her bamboo outside. Great photo of the two of them!

Here's the baby. From what the zoo keeper was saying was it took her a week to figure out how to climb up there and now that she's up there she's pretty much parked herself. She was napping and unfortunately facing away but still took the picture.

Above is the mother of the baby panda. I got great photos of her. It was great to see her that close to the glass and have kind of a "whatever" attitude. I think for her is was more important to fill her belly than care about the people on the other side.

I would've gotten a great photo of the male (father) panda had the guy with the stupid i*Phone moved! The panda was sitting the way the above panda was but right next to the glass. He actually turned and posed for the people that were watching him eat. The guy with the i*Phone took like 5 photos and by the time I was able to get in, the panda had started to move. UGH!!!!

Now we're exhausted and should sleep well tonight from all the walking we did today.