Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's
About 10, we left our room to go to the Como Zoo and Conservancy. Once again the street numbers got me. But thanks to Google Maps, I was able to quickly get turned in the right direction. We picked up the bus at Washington and 3rd Streets. This would be the 3A bus. The driver seems to know everybody who gets on the bus and is a genuinely enjoyable person as she interacts with each new rider.
The first building we go into concerns primates. They range from spider monkeys to large gorillas. When we exit the house, we see a couple zebras galloping around. I am suspecting that the female may be filing a harassment suit against her partner as she kept making hee-haw donkey noises.
I would guess that about 20% of the exhibits were empty. Not sure if it was just a matter that they were rotating animals, cleaning stalls out or if they did not have enough animals to fill them. Sometimes a whole building would be this way.
We go through the African Hoofed Stock house. The giraffes were the ones here. About this time Wendy asked about Winter pictures from various trips around Grant Grove. I sent her a giraffe picture.
Onward to lions and tigers and bears. Well the latter would need to wait for a little while. Both the tiger and lion, singular on both, were resting in their areas. They seem to live a life of ease, or maybe boredom.
The Fresno-Chaffee Zoo used to have polar bears. But our climate was not good for them, so they got moved. But the Como Zoo did. I suspect this is what Sherri really wanted to see. There were two polar bears in one of the areas. One spent the majority of the time in the water with the other joining the first a bit later. Inside the building there was a third polar bear. He was rather old and did not interact with the others. He had his own pool to play in.
Our final exhibit was the
Aquatic Animals.That would be not only fish, but other swimming
things-there was a separate seal area. But we only saw a nose once.
We saw puffins as well.
Gary with a plastic garbage eagle
By this time it was about 1. We found a place to have lunch and plot out what to do next. There was a bird area, but as I was writing this up, I saw that it was a seasonal exhibit. With that, we decided to move on to the Conservatory.
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The most extensive area was the Japanese garden. There were a couple of signs which I noticed. First it said that Japanese gardens, unlike western gardens, try to look natural without the uniformity which you see out of Europe. From what I could tell, these gardens looked more planned and placed. While there was a certain amount of unkemptness in some places, it did not look random nor chaotic.
The second sign said there
were six elements which a Japanese garden consisted of: water,
bridges, paths, stones, plants and ornaments. Notice that all are
plural. The ornaments include the stone lanterns and statues. These
gardens did have that.
The entrance into this garden is through settings with bonsai trees. In Atlanta, it seemed like there was an emphasis on the decorative qualities of these trees. Here, there is a diversity of types of trees, ranging from Dawn Redwoods to figs.
We then wander the garden paths-and there are paths,-It is pleasant and relaxing to stroll along the paths. Isn’t that the purpose of these gardens? I wonder how public these gardens are in Japan? Or are they private gardens? They must take a lot of effort to set up and then maintain. Do the workers get to enjoy the sense of well-being from these gardens? OK I am probably over-thinking this. I did enjoy just walking through.
We make our way out of the Conservatory, stopping at a few places which we skipped earlier. Then there is the gift shop which has a magnetic attraction for Sherri. I am able to resist and take up my customary spot on a bench. What to do next is the discussion? Do we eat? It is only 2:30. Go back to the hotel and veg? Walk the SkyWay? We talked to a guy at the visitor services desk. He suggests that walking down to Lake Como would be nice. It is a place of beauty.
So that is what we do. The walk down there is nice. My legs get tired from standing when we are at places like zoos or museums or gardens. They feel much better when we are able to walk at a moderate pace. And that is what we do. We see a pavilion with a deck and observe the lake from there. Then walk along the side of the lake for a while.
By this time, we are starting to get hungry. We are not interested in park or zoo food today. There are some places of unknown quality about half a mile away. But none seem interesting. So we walked to a bus stop-I misread where the stop was, so we walked a bit further. We catch the 3A bus back downtown.
While looking at Google Maps, I see an interesting sounding place with reasonable reviews called the Crooked Pint Ale House. We stop there and have our dinner of Pub House Burger-I think this is a stuffed burger-and a cowboy burger. The server paid the right amount of attention to us, with the right amount of company to enjoy her, but not intrusive. Then the food was very good. Glad we stopped in.
Afterwards, we made our way to our room and vegged for the rest of the evening. Showered and talked about what to do tomorrow and all. Of course we showered. Then went on our Wednesday night family Zoom call before going to bed at 10.
Extra Photo's
