Hogle Zoo

This last weekend we took Lillian to the Hogle Zoo.[1] We've been waiting for her to be old enough to enjoy it. A few months ago we took her to a pet store to see if she'd be interested. She had a good time but didn't give any video-worthy performances. And her attention span ran out pretty quickly. So we waited a little longer before taking her to the zoo. We were accompanied (to the zoo) by Leann's sister, Jennie, and her family, and Leann's old roommate, Maggie, and her family.[2] This year there was a new attraction, called Rocky Shores. Here are some of the animals we saw:

Some Amur tigers.

A snow leopard and her cub.

The giraffes, Pogo on the left and Daphne on the right.

A western lowland gorilla who got right up to the glass and just stared at Lilli.[3]

Some Brown Tufted Capuchin monkeys.

The African elephants, left to right, baby Zuri, Christie, and Dari (who is the oldest elephant in captivity).

A ring-tailed lemur.

Several North American river otters.

A few harbor seals.

A California sea lion.

A polar bear (who had dingy fur and paced his cage instead of playing in the pool).[4]

Some Angora goats.

A golden eagle (at the bird show).

Lilli's cousins, Ryleigh and Roscoe, rode on the carousel, but we decided Lilli would only enjoy it for a few minutes and then want to get down and walk around.

Some wallabies and an Aldabra tortoise.

Two Siamese Crocodiles.

Several Red Ibises in the small animal building. Iif you watch closely you can see its eyelids are white, which looks a little freaky.

Some golden lion tamarins.

And some common squirrel monkeys.

My favorite exhibit at the zoo—the wall of insects, spiders, and scorpions.

And slender-tailed meerkats.

All that walking around left us hot and parched. So on the way home we took a detour to Nielsen's Frozen Custard.[5] A few years ago, when Leann took a summer course at the old BYU Salt Lake Center, it was on our way (and it came highly recommended), so we stopped by several times. One of those times I ordered a regular vanilla custard concrete with chocolate chips and cherries added in.[6] It was fantastic. Now that's what I get every time we go there (which, unfortunately, isn't very often).[7] Leann always gets something else and then laments that mine is better, so it's probably the best thing you could possibly get there.

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Notes:

[1] See also last year's post about a trip to Hogle Zoo at Zoorassic Park.

[2] Their family has a blog at http://benandmaggiecope.blogspot.com/.

[3] For a funny gorilla video, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb-vpmW1n7U.

[4] Leann tells me that this is a sign of insanity in caged animals.

[5] The venue we visited is at 3918 Highland Drive, Holladay, UT. There are also venues in Bountiful, Utah; Layton, Utah; St. George, Utah; and Las Vegas, Nevada.

[6] I did this because I could remember eating chocolate chip and cherry ice cream at my Grandma Crook's house when I was little.

[7] I have tried to replicate this experience by buying chocolate chip and cherry ice creams at the store. But it never works.