Albuquerque Trip Part 2: At the Zoo

It's been a long time since we've been to a Zoo; Ruth was just 13 months-old. It was fun to go with her again now that she could appreciate what a lot of these animals were. The Albuquerque Zoo is very nice -- the animals have a fair amount of space to roam and we were fortunate to see a lot of activity despite the summer heat. Here are just a few highlights of our visit, which didn't even include all the animal exhibits because our kids couldn't last that long!

They had two polar bears, one of which was showing off in the water playing with what looked like a giant block of Styrofoam (it was not Styrofoam, obviously). I wish we'd snapped a photo of the entire polar bear play area -- it featured a higher pool, a rock water slide down into a lower pool. It was like their own private water park. It almost made you want to jump and join them.

My Grandma and Aunt Debbie. Looking at this picture, it occurs to me that both of these remarkable women are cancer survivors: Grandma is a colon cancer survivor and my Aunt Debbie is a breast cancer survivor. It was a delight to spend this time with them.

This volunteer is telling about how the zoo is home to several rescued animals, including this small falcon. Some of them cannot be released to the wild because of their injuries but instead live at the zoo become educational animals at the zoo. Very cool.

While they did enjoy the animals, Ruth and Lily's favorite parts of the zoo were, of course, the sand pit and play area. That they were surrounded by rare and unusual animals that had been brought from all over the world was, admittedly, merely an added bonus.

Next Stop: Uncle Cliff's -- "The Lagoon (Amusement Park) of New Mexico"