Mar. 30: The San Antonio Zoo

Yesterday, we finally cranked up the beast and drove around town. We completely circumvented the city by days end. We're on the east side of town and headed north toward a camp ground we wanted to check out. Decided it was too far north and headed back south. Stopped at the Quarry Market which is a big mall built out of rocks from the area. Pretty neat place. Found Amy's Ice Cream. Tasted the Shiners Ice Cream (did taste like beer-not sure it was Shiners) but ended up with Bourbon Chocolate Walnut. Boy was that good and it had actual Bourbon in it.

Drove down to the southwest corner so Larry could revisit his fun and, I'm sure, fond memories of basic training at Lackland AFB. He couldn't remember a thing - nothing look familiar. So I took a picture of the bridge (that wasn't there when he was) and headed back around the south end of town for home. Ate Subway for supper - that was a really good supper after all the fat and carbs we've been eating.


I came back from the day's tour and sat down on the computer to see if I could figure out the bus schedule to get us to the zoo. We left here around 9:30 and got to the zoo around 11:00 with only one transfer. Not bad and beats the $3.90/gal for diesel. It costs me $1 each way and Larry got to ride free all weekend because he's old.

I didn't take the usual photos at the zoo because we've all seen zoos. However, I did take pictures of stuff that I thought was a little different or unusual. And more flowers, of course. These were taken at a round-about at the entrance to the zoo. The tall ones in the middle appeared to my untrained eye to be those ornamental cabbages and they're blooming. Maybe someone can tell what they really are.



First thing we went thru was the reptile house. I don't normally take pictures of snakes because snakes are snakes unless they're the pretty coral snake but this one was just laying there posing so prettily that I just couldn't resist. And the lizard was just plain pretty. I had a hard time focusing because of the glass but the colors came through.






We went thru a Lorry exhibit and naturally the birds landed on Larry and he naturally enjoyed it--and didn't get pooped on. More on that later.








We were walking by the grizzly bear exhibit and the old boy just stopped pacing and sat down and sat up like he was posing - so I just couldn't resist. The flamingos did the same thing. Larry and I showed up and I lifted the camera and the flamingo spread his wings - sorta like he was posing--I think it was really part of the preening process. So I snapped a couple of photos. Hope you see a theme here.

Then we saw this gorgeous growth of bougainvillea and I naturally posed for a picture. I didn't have a KU shirt so this was a close as I could come to showing support of Kansas. Doesn't clash too much with the flowers.





There was a butterfly house displaying Asian butterflies. It was extremely hot and humid in the house but I persevered and snapped many pictures. These are just a few. The heat and humidity of the outside felt really good after being in that house.





There was a very large water area in the middle of the zoo. There was a Cranes Of The World display along with every other kind of bird that was in the Texas area and some that were there on purpose. Several beautiful ducks, pelicans, cranes, both back & white swans, lots of White Ibis and a rookery of Scarlet Ibis. I was pooped on three times on the back of my shirt and once on my camera bag. Larry got nothing but he was good enough to clean me up. The White Ibis had a very large rookery in the trees around the water area - I went under them to take photos. Photos didn't turn out because I was looking up under the nests and you could just barely see the bird. But I came away with some of the digested left overs. Again, I didn't take a lot of pictures of the birds because most everyone has seen these birds. These ducks were just really colorful to me.

After we were done with the zoo, we walked over to a small train depot and bought a ride. This train went around Brackenridge Park which has the zoo, this small park and train, a rough golf course with driving range and putting greens, the Japanese Tea Garden and Japanese Sunken Garden and the Botanical Gardens border on this park. The San Antonio River runs thru the park and there are several building for holding group activities.



We then caught the bus and headed back to downtown San Antonio and more Mexican food. Larry has found a good place for tamales and that's where we went back to. After eating, we ventured back to the Alamo and I managed to get this great shot without any tourists in the middle of it. How lucky was that. I also asked the Texas Ranger that was there about the Republic of Texas. When Texas declared it's independence from Mexico it became a Republic. It was a Republic for 10 years before it became the 28th state of the Union. Therefore, Texas has the right to succeed from the Union at any time it chooses and can fly the Texas flag at the same height as the American flag - and does.

Tomorrow is stay-at-camp day and do some laundry. Tuesday we head for Fredericksburg. Probably won't hear from me until Tuesday or Wednesday.