We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, How about you, you, you?

Shortly after we arrived at the zoo on Saturday, we were lucky enough to catch a Close Encounters show at the Wild Wonders Outdoor Stage. 

An outdoor stage with a roof over the seating area.

This is the Pacific Northwest, after all!

First was Tilly the aardvark, who has no doubt already endeared you to her charms.

Then there was a bald eagle, a kookaburra (yes, really, and she laughed on demand), a clever dog named Herall, and Stella the hornbill.

Stella played fetch with the zookeeper and was all kinds of cute.

I love this kind of an animal show, laid back and humourous. 

Dang. British spelling is starting to look erroneous to me. What shall I do?

PDZ&A is a very hands-on zoo. Tilly the aardvark goes for regular walks around the zoo, meeting the patrons, as do many of the other animals who have been raised by and imprinted on humans.

The aquarium has a few glorious sights. 

One of the sea otters lay with this thing on its stomach the whole time I stood and watched. The other otters were active and playful, but this one just lay there, grooming its face and catching the few watery rays that beamed down from the sky. It looked perfectly content, but I was a bit worried about the disc thing. It seemed to be resting heavily on the stomach of the otter; you can see the imprint in its fur.

Very strange.

I was determined to outlast the otter and see what happened when it decided to swim away, but alas, the otter was the better man of us two. 

Or woman.

Whatever.

Outdone by an otter.

The lemurs were in the children's section. As we were leaving I caught this shot of them snoozing with their tails wrapped around them.
Another caption-worthy photo?
Maybe some extra points?

We closed down the zoo (literally) and went to visit some old friends who live close by. Brett and Jeannine  were really friends of Bethany and Chris but we kind of adopted them and they are part of many fond family memories. They have three cute little girls now and are forging their way in the world with gusto. They treated us to dinner at Steamers, which is almost worth the three-hour drive all on its own. I can't resist posting this photo of their two oldest girls. 

Little peas in a pod.

And then we went home.