Audubon Zoo

I went to the zoo after a MS Bike ride training event on the levee with the cycling club I ride with in Louisiana. Since the ride started and ended at the batture, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit the zoo because of their proximity to one another. Plus, I figured that zoos are usually stinky, so no one would notice that I smelled like I had just finished a 40 mile bike ride.

Aside from sending MMSes to my co-worker and former roommate seconded in Saudi that I had run into his camel vacationing in New Orleans, the highlight was definitely the Louisiana swamp exhibit! Usually I run in the other direction when I see an alligator, but there's something about a thick sheet of glass between me and a twelve foot long swamp beast that adds some security. That and the fact that white alligator skin is definitely a show stopper! Touring this exhibit also gave me the opportunity to take some cool photos of a moss covered gator and floating swamp shack in the gator exhibit. I later sent these photos to a co-worker that was being sent out here from SoCal, too, as examples of the corporate housing accommodations and questionable neighbors (the gator) that awaited him upon arrival.

I really enjoyed my day at the zoo, minus the rain! (Arrggg...still not used to being somewhere that it rains more than five days a year and in non-winter months. Lately, I find myself not only making sure that my shoes, belt, and purse match, but that my purse can fit an umbrella and rain boots in it. Yes, I have a purse that my rain boots fit in: being short with a small shoe size is finally paying off so I don't have to wear rain boots for the parts of the day it isn't raining - compact convenience!)

http://www.auduboninstitute.org/visit/zoo