DAY 12 OF MY VACATION. I headed over to the Sacramento Zoo for a walk there.

Wednesdays are apparently a good day to go to the zoo because there were hardly any people there and I got the first spot in the parking lot (closest to the crosswalk from the lot to the zoo gate). The weather was lovely all the while I was there (about 56º when I got there, about 76º when I left.) Bookends: as I was going into the zoo I saw a squirrel and took its picture, and when I came out of the zoo, I saw another squirrel and got his picture, too.

I had gone specifically to see Coconut again, the baby Snow Leopard. When I first stopped at the Snow Leopard enclosure, the dad, Blizzard, was out, so I walked on. When I came back to the enclosure about an hour later, the keeper was cleaning it out and setting out toys for Coconut to play with. So, I was one of the first people at the enclosure when she opened up the door and let out Coconut and his mom, Misha. I think I took over 200 photos of them. They’re so beautiful, and the baby is so funny.

He’s at the “let’s pounce on mom” stage, and play-attacked her from different angles. Most of the time, she saw him coming and just braced herself for the impact. (She’s really gentle with him.) But, once he came at her from a ledge above her and startled her enough to make her run off a bit. You could almost see how proud he was about that. Hahahaha!

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

As an extra fun moment, baby Cosmo, this year’s only baby Flamingo, was also out and walking around. She’s all gray right now and hasn’t started to pink up yet. Because she was the only flamingo born this year, was rejected by her mom and had no siblings, her keepers are allowing her to bond with them in the hopes that even when Cosmo joins the flock in the zoo later, she’ll still come to them whenever they lay down a little white blanket for her.

They were working with her today where everyone could see her, giving her hugs and praise and a clicker-treat (brine shrimp) when she came to her white blanket (“station”). Later, as the keepers were walking away, one of them had the white blanket with her, and little Cosmo walked right along after her on the sidewalks and paved paths of the zoo (without any enclosure or leash or anything else). It was so cute!

Among the other birds, they have a Plain-colored Amazon parrot who’s learning to “talk” and interact with people. It said “Hello” to me several times and made a “purring” sound. The sign beside its cage suggested that you sing and dance for the birds, but… uh, no. I wasn’t going to do that. Hah!

About halfway through my visit, I stopped at the café to have some lunch: a tri-tip sandwich, fries and a large soda. Their food is always good, but their portions are so large I can never finish it all. The food is expensive, too, but you have to keep in mind that about 30% of the price goes to the animals so… eat and shut up. Hah-2!

Other critters that I hardly ever get to see were also out: The sloth was moseying around in its enclosure, but it’s hard to get photos of it because its in a cage with tiny openings in the mesh that my camera can’t see through. The male jaguar was also out, but he was upset and pacing, so I couldn’t get any clear photos of him either. In the reptile house, though, I had better luck and got pretty good photos of the chuckwalla, Amazon Milk Frogs, and Dart Frogs… and also got to see the Rhinoceros Iguana, which I had never seen before. He was a big dude, about the size of my leg. It would have made a good “dinosaur” in a cheap monster movie.

I ended up seeing about 45 different species and getting some good photos, so I was very pleased.