The Fascinating Life and Times of Me

Becki has told me the most wonderful news! You might remember back in September we enjoyed the fantastic Admission Day Weekend grand opening of the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park. Wasn't that awesome? Well, Saturday, February 4 is the 8th Annual Sacramento Museum Day!

It is pretty much the same deal as Admission Day weekend (ie, free admission to all of the museums and historic parks in Sacramento), but it only lasts the one day.

There will be 24(!) museums to check out for free on February 4th. However, the website recommends that we only attempt to see 2 or 3 museums/state historic parks on one day. Apparently any more than that would be too overwhelmingly spectacular.

Sutter's Fort

Here is a list of the museums we can choose from. I have helpfully bolded the places I would like to visit.
Aerospace Museum of California
California Foundry History Museum
California Military Museum
California State Capitol Museum
California Museum of History, Women & the Arts
California State Indian Museum
California State Railroad Museum
Crocker Art Museum
Discovery Museum’s Gold Rush History
Center
Discovery Museum’s Science & Space Center
Donald F. Salvatori
California Pharmacy Museum
Explorit Science Center (Davis)
Fairytale
Town
Folsom History Museum
Governor’s Mansion State Historic
Park
Heidrick Ag History Center (Woodland)
Leland Stanford
Mansion State Historic Park
Museum of Medical History
Old Sacramento
State Historic Park
Sacramento Zoo
Sacramento Historic
City Cemetery
Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park
Towe Auto Museum
Wells Fargo History Museum (Old Sacramento location only)

Governor's Mansion

Apparently the Zoo gets super crowded, so we might not want to check that out on Museum Day. But I think that (for example) going to the Governor's Mansion in the morning, having lunch somewhere (we could bring a picnic), and visiting Sutter's Fort in the pm could possibly live up to the awesomeness that was our trip to the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park.

Anyway, I am open to suggestions so let me know.

I was glad to be on the ground and away from the terrible birds, and I rolled my tired and battered body gratefully in the weeds and dirt. I chewed on some of the weeds, trying to settle my nervous stomach. Then I groomed my sap-covered tail for a moment before I sat up on my haunches, scanning the horizons and sniffing the air.

Scrubby dry grass lay before me in all directions, stopping only when it meet the blue sky at the horizon. The afternoon sun blazed down on me ominously. There was no doubt about it, I was lost.

Lesser cats then I might have felt discouraged at this moment. Surely a dog would resign itself to certain death. But I am no inferior creature. Off to my right I could smell car exhaust and hear a distant hum. Cars meant roads, and my home was on a road, so that must be the right direction.

I set off resolutely towards the noise, but paused after a few steps. Did I really want to go home? I sat back down and mulled over it. The prospect of freedom was alluring. I could live off the land, in the wild like my feline ancestors. But I am a domestic goddess. Hunting is fine for sport, but hunting for survival is not so dandy. The main reason I stay with the moronic people and insipid cats are the twice-daily feedings. My mind flashed back to my kittenhood, and the harsh realities of eating out of dumpsters and sleeping under shrubbery on long, cold, rainy nights. As lousy as my home was, it was better than no home at all. I resigned myself to this fate.

Besides, I thought, maybe I would find a better home on my journey. I perked up at this thought, and set out toward the road.
To be Continued...

And now, the thrilling conclusion of My Trip to the San Diego Zoo.


Isn't this just too cute for words? This is the papa bear to the little baby panda that they have a the Zoo. We went to see the baby just as they took it away for its checkup. But this guy was dozing behind the trees in his enclosure and he was just adorable. He is sleeping with his head on his paws. Soooo cute.

This polar bear was looking right at my Dad when he took this picture. He is laying on his belly with his legs sticking out behind him. I think he was was sunbathing. Which is odd because it was pretty warm outside, and polar bears like the cold, I thought. They even have a special cooling system for the polar bear's water at the zoo. But both of the polar bears were out sunning themselves.

This is a pair of some type of bird. Hawk or eagle maybe? I have no memory of seeing these birds. Maybe they were the Sea Eagles. Those are the closest relatives to the Bald Eagle.

Zebras! These were some of my favorite animals at the zoo. They were pretty indifferent to us while we were looking at them, but when the tour bus drove by they all turned around so that their tails were facing the bus. I guess they do that every time the bus goes by.

Here is a bonus Zebra picture. On the sign about the zebras it said that they are black with white stripes, which answers that question from Madagascar.

Now it's time for adorable baby giraffe pictures!


Looking at the baby giraffe was like eating sugar covered in pure corn syrup. It was so freaking adorable that it almost caused me physical pain to look at it. The baby giraffe was off by itself while the adults were eating. It looks cute and little but it is already six feet tall.

This was one of the coolest things that I saw at the zoo. This dog and cheetah grew up together and are good friends! They said that the dog is actually the alpha in the relationship, and that they have to separate the cheetah and the dog at mealtimes or the dog will steal the cheetah's food! During this same show we got to see the Arctic Wolf, which was very cool. At one point they had us all howl at the wolf, and then the wolf would howl back. It was awesome.

Here is an example of some of the numerous free range homosapiens they had at the zoo. I don't know why that lady in the foreground looks so annoyed, because they zoo is the kind of place where it is hard to be unhappy. You can see me and my mom in the back there, we are happy to be at such an excellent zoo.

So that's it for the zoo pics. Going to the zoo reminded me of what a strange but neat world we live in, with all kinds of crazy animals. At one point I heard someone complaining about how the monkeys needed more space to roam around or something, and I know that the habitats that the zoo has aren't perfect, but all of the animals I saw look mentally and physically healthy. They get to live in San Diego, with free room and board. What's not to like?

It has only been 5 years or so since I last went to the San Diego Zoo, but I somehow managed to forget how utterly amazing it is. I recommend it highly. The whole city of San Diego was absolutely gorgeous. There had been a huge storm the day before we got there, so the air was clear, the sky was blue, and everything looked clean and fresh. The weather decided to be in the mid to upper 70s. It was PERFECT.

Anywho, I know you want to see the animal pictures, so here they are. I still don't have a camera, my Dad took all of these. You can click on them to open a bigger picture.

The first animals you see when you walk in the zoo are these flamingos. I'm not sure how they keep them from flying away. They must clip their wings somehow. Or maybe the flamingos know that they have a good thing going. There was this random bird hanging out with the flamingos that was way smaller, duck-sized (but not a duck), and it had the same bright color as the flamingos. I think it is because it was stealing the flamingo chow.

The first thing we did when we got to the Zoo was to go on the double-decker bus tour. Here is a shot of the Giraffes. Note the adorable baby giraffe, which I think was about 6 months old. According to the tour guide, giraffes are the tallest animals at the zoo (shocking!).

Here is a Rhinoserous, also from the tour. It was standing right on the edge of it's enclosure, those people down on the street were maybe five feet away from it. I think it was kind of annoyed with them, it seems to be giving them the evil eye.

That's my arm on the left there. I'm looking at the elephants. On the tour we learned that they keep the girl elephants at the zoo and the boys at the wild animal park. They are the heaviest animals at the zoo, and I think one of them was in a movie once, but I forget which elephant and which movie. Sorry.

In the middle there is a Koala bear. It was very adorable. At the time it was eating some eucalyptus. There are like 5,000 eucalyptus trees at the zoo. There were five or so koalas. There were also some wallabies and kangaroo rats, but no kangaroos.

This is some horned thing, we'll say antelope. At one point in the tour the guide went on for like 5 minutes on how some ox had perfectly symmetrical horns, and that this was as rare as winning the lottery. He told everybody, "take pictures of this, you will never see this again in our lifetime". He even drove the bus around to get a better angle for our photographs. My dad didn't take a picture of that, sorry. But this gazelle or whatever had a nice pair of horns, and look at the one behind it climbing the rock! Agile!

This isn't as good of a picture as I hoped it would be, but this is a Jaguar that is pacing back and forth right in front of the cage. This was about three or four feet in front of us. You could hear it breathing and see its strands of fur. It had big, yellow eyes and the rest of it was pure blackness. And its paws were huge. I think it was pacing because it saw the zookeepers on the other side feeding the other animals, and it wanted to eat too.

The Jaguar lived next door to this Leopard. They lived on the "Cat Walk" located in the equally cleverly named "Cat Canyon". This kitty was pacing too, but he stopped here to watch a little kid that was running up towards him. Or maybe he was watching the zookeeper across the way. Either way he was thinking about breakfast.

So that's part one of my trip to the Zoo. Click here to read part two. Trust me, there are even more awesome animals to come.