North China Leopard

Today Arvin and I walked over to the zoo for a free day of exploring. We started by taking the tour bus around the park to get oriented. Next we rode the gondola across the park to the Polar Bear area and walked down through the elephant area taking photos as we went. I chose this photo even though you can see the fence in front of this beautiful cat. They are rare and this one was enjoying some kind of feathered meal that I am sure he had been given by the keeper. In this photo he has just about finished and is licking his chops. He is sitting up on a rock above where we are standing. Press "L" for the larger view. You can see some of the other photos I took on Chaikins of Bellingham. Both

Arvin and I got pretty tired by the afternoon. His feet began to give out and I am in the midst of a cold so I lost my get up and go. So we walked home and spent the last part of the afternoon having some coffee and a snack and looking through our photos. We thought we would be spending time with our nephew, his wife and Bailey, our great niece. But they are about an hour's drive from here and we do not have a car. We may not even see them tomorrow as they have decided to come to the San Diego Zoo and we are going to the Safari Park which is in Escondido. It was a bit of a mix up as we thought the plan was for them to drive us up there. Instead we will rent a car for the day to drive there instead of going with the kids. A bit of a disappointment but never mind. We are not going to miss those cheetahs tomorrow. It a way it is just as well because I was concerned about exposing Bailey to my cold. Our current plan is to spend Tuesday with them and by then I should feel better and be less catching.