Montgomery Zoo

 Sunday afternoon was lovely so we decided to check out the zoo in Montgomery.  Love going to the zoo when it's cool out as opposed to the swelter of summer as it's not nearly as crowded and the animals are much more alert.

It was very quiet and most the animals were up and about.  Felt like we had the place to ourselves a lot of the time.

 This little sanctuary area was surrounded by the big cats cages.  Seemed a little cruel to have the tigers and jaguars having to stare all day through glass/cage at something they were probably dying to eat.  There was only one lion that we thought was female as it had no mane.  The zookeeper said they had fixed it when it was young because they had another male in the cage and when they do that they don't grow a mane, AND they grow twice as big.  Who knew?

 Of course we spent half an hour watching the monkeys.  This was the only baby and was a total tease.  Bugged the bigger ones then would run and hide behind mom when they got annoyed and came after him.  Could spend the whole day just watching them.

 I didn't include the photo Tom had to take of the elephant relieving himself.  For some reason he found that compelling enough to document. Several times.

 This guy was hilarious.  When we had gone by his area earlier in the day he was lying peacefully over in the sun against a far wall.  Around 4:30 when we came back his way he was pacing back and forth in front of this door.  He would even go up and knock against it as he was ready to eat and ready to go in for the night.  Very funny.

There was also a museum with all kinds of life sized mounted animals.  I got ahead of Tom and it was kind of dark in there.  It was a little creepy to come around corners by myself and have huge bears up on their hind legs looking ready to pounce!  It was a great day though and I'm pretty sure that's the first time we've been to a zoo sans children.  Relaxing and very enjoyable!