On the Road – Page 16

Out and About: Dakota Zoo

September 2, 2014 by KTgreen

While I was visiting in North Dakota, Piper and I made a trip to the Dakota Zoo.

Like the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, the Dakota Zoo features local creatures…

And like our local park, there were bears..

grizzly bears — Four Grizzly Bears behind glass.

otters,

and alligators!

The Dakota Zoo had some exotic animals, too.

This is where you go to see the tigers up close and personal. I didn’t plan in crawling through that tunnel until some guy said, “you gotta go, the tiger is sleeping on the glass ceiling”.

White Bengal Tiger — Yep, there was a tiger on the ceiling!

We went for a ride on the train and had some popcorn.

train

and ended the visit by spending some quality time in the playground.

A few weeks ago while I was visiting our son and daughter-in-law, during one of our early morning walks, we stopped to admire these giraffes in the front of a house across the street. This was a four lane highway so we were quite a bit away but the homeowner saw us through her picture window and scurried right out and called us over to enjoy her entire yard.

I was expecting more giant tchotchkes but was happily surprised with a beautifully landscaped garden with meandering paths and blooming flowers. And, yeah, some tchotchkes.

Garden

The woman never introduced herself but I’m going to call her Helen, or maybe Alice. When I asked Helen how many hours she put into this remarkable yard every day and she said “none, Bill did it all.” And then Bill joined us. He said that it was nothing, they are mostly perennials. I think not.

Gotta get back into my own yard. Maybe put some giant giraffes in the front. Definitely more bird houses and a couple of benches!