Festival of Lights

Last week, Gus, Buddy, & I went to the Festival of Lights at the zoo. Unfortunately, Lulu couldn't go with us. This has been a yearly tradition for us since the kids were little. We always seem to pick the coldest day in December - but that's part of the tradition. We go, we freeze, we complain, we laugh about it - and we do it all over again the following year, LOL.

giant lion nutcracker outside the entrance

huge Christmas tree just inside the entrance - beautiful!

normally, I hate these inflatable figures, but they were kinda cute here

lights around the lake - they were timed with the music

one of the very stinky, but cool, elephants

one of Santa's reindeer

Am I the only one who didn't know that scorpions' exoskeletons glow in the dark??

I'm not fond of snakes, but this is a king snake & he eats other snakes (even venomous ones), so he's okay in my book

the 3 new manatees - one is a baby - isn't she cute??

My cousin works at the zoo as the penguin keeper. He gave us a great tour of the bird house and then took us back to meet a couple of the penguins. Majorly cool!!

Kyoto, a 2 yr. old King penguin - his feathers are super soft!

he's ready to go back - apparently he was unimpressed with us, LOL!

This is Buddy - a 24 yr. old Magellanic penguin. He was very friendly - I loved him!

Look at his feathers - more than 70 per sq. in.!

so cute how he followed my cousin when he called him!

Buddy & me doing what we do best - act silly!

Gus & me

Buddy & me