Mbuni's Mbuti's and Mbubi's all found in the Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

After a tiring and exciting adventure at the Olympic National park in Washington, a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo seemed to be the best option for the kids.

We have heard a lot about this zoo but never visited in our previous trips to Seattle. This time we entered when they opened and exit when they closed the park and must have covered every alley way in the zoo map (including a visit to every restroom and snack stall!)

This was by far the best zoo trip with the kids. Seattle apparently does not get that many days with such gorgeous weather. So people flocked to the park, even on a weekday and the animals were also well behaved. Chances are they don't get to see such nice weather either!

Zoo animals usually just show their behinds to show people how they feel about being in the zoo (which they did in plenty this time also), but for once they also came close to the people, fence, glass wall etc. to give the photographers a chance!

For some reason, the many women who visited consistently reduced the % cloth cover by about 50% compared to women outside on the street. These women were more scantily clad than women in California beaches or Disneyland on Memorial day weekend. Now, that must set the bar pretty low. The shorts that some girls wore made my shorts look like pantaloons!

Needless to say, the desi family dynamic in any place where there are way too many scantily clad non-desi women who constantly feel the urge to come tell the group that the embroidered salwar kameez with mirrors and chamki's is gorgeous, gives rise to some funny moments... (most of which are blog worthy, but will not be posted because my kids read the blog).

The menfolk, who are seasoned veterans, when it came to looking at cleavage that reminds you of the grand canyon, straight on and ignoring it effortlessly were checking the other men to see if anyone flinched. I think we should start calling it a game, aptly titled "vishwamitra". The first one to stare, gets hit on the head by his wife and the entire family.

To summarize, we saw,

Mbuni's : Mbuti's : Mbubi's in the ratio of 2 : 200 : 2000

not to mention the other animals.

You can use these photos to quiz your kids. Name the animal or bird by looking at the buttshots!

Sorry for the couple of x-rated shots there.. Must have been one of those "love is in the air" days in Seattle, and in case you are wondering...

Mbuni = Ostrich in Swahili
Mbuti = Woman wearing a shorts/skirt where ass cheeks are visible in Sundari
Mbubi = Woman clearly displaying bra or a clear lack thereof, again in the ancient extinct language called Sundari (a close cousin of Swahili)

You get to see the faces of the animals and birds in the next post, so do check back tomorrow.

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They say elephants can remember.. Can people?

Woman kills elephant with bow and arrow.. (read comments, they are really interesting)

In a world where people cannot be protected from other people, who is going to protect these animals?

They have no voice. They can't pick up weapons and retaliate. Most of us are busy making the world a better place.. for ourselves!

Yaanaia paathomaa, our vaazha pazhatha kuduthomaannu irukkama..
(you see an elephant, feed it a banana and keep going...)

So sad...

The news could have been

Woman files half way around globe to tame elephant
Woman flies half way around globe to feed elephants a ton of bananas
Banana republic sponsors woman to feed a ton of bananas to zimbabwean elephant
Ton of bananas intended for zimbabwean elephant shared by poor kids
Woman flies half way around globe to fight lioness
Woman flies half way around globe and takes on wild elephant unarmed

etc. etc.

Even if this elephant was not endangered and they killed it to collect money to save more elephants (which in itself is funny .. because that is as bad as poor people selling their kids to save the rest of the family.. at the end of the day someone is exploiting a poor country and its people), it wasn't a fair fight!

The elephant wasn't picking a fight.
It was not attacking anyone.

Kill a fly in the bathroom because Jr. is afraid of flies. That is nothing to be proud of. I have a swatter and the fly doesn't have a chance. Sure there will be some insect lover who feels passionately about the swatting of flies and how flies are getting endangered. (okay, an elephant and fly are not the same.. especially if you compare population densities and I am only being sarcastic here)

Is this something someone should be proud of? That is the only question that nags me.

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Sacramento Zoo

We went on a short trip to the Sacramento Zoo, the day after thanksgiving.

We had a blast. The weather was great and the kids were well behaved throughout the two hour ride from San Jose (~125 miles one way) as well as on the ride back!

This is a great zoo! Somehow all the animals seem to be happy and were interacting with the people, seem to be healthy, well maintained and comfortable. They had zoo staff, in little booths explaining things to the kids about the animals. They even have a animal hospital on display for visitors which was very informative.

The photos and videos say it all..

Bramhopadesam paramam pavithram... cut cut cut.. this was just playtime.. this pose by the two orangutans reminded me of an old Upanayanam (poonal) photo of me and my dad with a silk cloth over our head, during the "initiation ceremony"!

They were just adorable.

The kookaburra from Australia. My mom taught Jr. "Kookaburra sits on a sorgham tree..." and it is one of her favorites!

Some of the bird cages were a little cramped but the African gray parrots were still very happy!

The long necked ones, apparently have seven neck bones, same count as humans, except the bones are long! Most of these were 13 -11 years old. They also had some giraffe skin from one that passed away at the zoo at an old age of 24 (apparently in the wild they live to be 16-17 max).

Jr. put the demo lady on the spot by asking her who killed the animal, how did they get the skin out etc. Once the questions started getting very difficult, we pulled Jr. out!

They had this metal artwork and some picnic tables nearby which were very useful to do some show and tell while feeding the kids.

Spot the main difference in the two photos below. (one is a cropped version)!

The little one is sooo impatient.

She wanted to be the big Kangaroo!

We saw what appeared to be Master Shifu..

The South American ant eater, a big hit with the kids!

The Sumatran Tiger, captured to the best of my ability through glass, wire and bamboo..

The lion was way too far to be captured with an 80mm max zoom, but the Jaguar was up close!

The flamingo pond was amazing. It was like seeing them in the wild.

After the trip to the zoo, we went on to visit Fairy Tale Land and Funderland, two other attractions across the zoo. The kids really enjoyed the day.

Here is a video of the Zoo trip..

Strongly recommended for a one day outing from the bay area!

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Birds and the bees...

A misleading title for this post!

This is a photoblog of the animals, birds, flowers from the recent Route 1 trip...

It was interesting to say the least...

Seagulls white, brown, Pelicans, Pelicans, more Pelicans, seals, sealions, bunch of cactus (have never seen these before)...

There were some other birds by the sea. Crmorants, falcons, slender legged birds with long curved beaks, too fast or too far to capture on camera!

I never knew there was this much to see. Realized that having your eyes open and seeing are two different things!

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