Tacoma Washington - Point Defiance Aquarium & Olive Garden. Huh?

Happy Saturday!  The rain has stopped (for now) and there is lots of good sports this weekend.  Sharks hockey tonight and Cowboys playoff football for the first time in FOR. EV. ER! tomorrow.  

So I thought I would spend this foggy morning on my blog.  Our last stop at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium was the amazing aquarium.  To see my fabulous family and equally fabulous animals and flowers at Point Defiance, click HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

 And now we go...beyond the deep.

These starfish are hugging.  There is so much love in this room right now!!  

Next time you each that shrimp scampi, think about this picture.  haha!

The octopus was just hanging around at the top of the tank so I could only see one - very impressive - part of him.   

Shark!  In front of a shipwreck which I thought was pretty cool to have in the tank. 

 So much color and vibrancy under the sea!  I love all these purples and pinks. 

Sea dollars!  And some really cool soft pink, glowing fern-thingies.  

Marine biologist I am definitely not. 

 Jellies!  These are sooooo amazing!

Unfortunately we found out the hard way that the aquarium and zoo were closing early for a wedding.  Which is immensely cool!  But some advance notice to people could plan their day better would be GREAT customer service!  So we didn't get to see everything in to aquarium, including the stingray cove and marine discovery center.  So I guess I'll have to go back in the future!

But I did get to see a beautiful display of grandmotherly love with my sister IL Verna and her grandson Logan. 

Washington is really one of the most beautiful states in the USA. 

What an amazing place!  But after all that walking and Pokemon hunting, we were all hungry!  We decided to head to Olive Garden for a great family meal.  I have to say, the food and service that we had at the nearby Olive Garden was the best I've ever experienced at an Olive Garden and also many other places.  Kudos to the staff who were truly wonderful! A great time was had by all!

I love my family!

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Washington State Road Trip: Point Defiance Animals!

I always want to type that as Point "Definance" which would have a completely different meaning.  Anyway, here we are for another installment at the amazing Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in beautiful Tacoma, Washington.  

See my amazing family and part 1 at the zoo HERE and a day filled with the cutest animals, birds and flowers HERE.  And if you'd like to check out the sights from Sacramento to Portland, click HERE.

For today, we move on from the Rocky Shores of the Pacific Northwest, and head for the family-friendly Camels. 

Oh, this guy loved having his photo taken.  I've seen professional models who don't have his camera savvy for angles!

 He was really working it!  Get it girl! #duckface

Here is a family portrait of my wonderful niece, her amazing hubby, and their two adorable, accomplished children! And a camel.  💋💖 Sabrina is a fabulous photographer.  I hope to be like her when I grow up.  Her portrait work is excellent!

Trinity and Logan seemed to enjoy learning about the camel, not to mention the bumpy ride.

But the person who seemed to enjoy the camels the most, was Lee!  And I'm pretty sure he made the day for the camel "herder".  

This is my big brother!  I love him and he's doing SO MUCH BETTER!!  Yay!!!!  

💕💝

See, the story is that we all were worried that Robert/Bob wasn't getting enough exercise as he was riding a scooter around.  So I told him that my feet were killing me (it wasn't a lie...they actually were due to me being fat and numerous breaks over the years) and he graciously let me ride the scooter for a bit!  I love him. 

And I love this next photo.  These two monkey friends were happy as could be sitting together at the top of their enclosure.  #BFF

Next we moved on to the Asian Forest Sanctuary where we saw this incredible creature!  An Indian-Crested Porcupine with quills to die for!  Or from.   

One of the BIG draws at PDZA is Kirana, Dari, and their big sister, Kali.  They are rare Sumatran Tigers which are another species that is rapidly dwindling.  Only 400 tigers remain on the island of Sumatra.  These three are more success stories in the Species Survival Plan for Sumatran Tigers. Kirana and Dari were born in 2014 and Kali in 2013.  

We only saw Kirana and Dari the day we were there, but boy did they put on an amazing show!  They were stalking and attacking each other throughout their large, natural enclosure.  Of course my video of one such play attack came out completely crappy. But here are some good shots!

Next were the Asian Elephants.  They really just wanted to be fed as it was getting close to dinner time. 

 They aren't in small pens, it just looks like it because they were lined up waiting for the food to come out. Elephants are HIGHLY intelligent and sensitive souls. Hungry too. 

Unfortunately, because I was so taken with the tigers and elephants, I missed one of the top attractions at PDZA - the baby snow leopards!  Angela got to see them playing around, but when I got there, they were curled up into a sleeping ball!  Still adorable though!

Next we saw two very rare specimens in the Asian forest!  We were SO lucky to catch a rare site of these two!  Angela the snake charmer!

And a crazy LoganEkans!

Yes, I was the Worse. Aunt. Ever! again by encouraging these two to cross the rope.  I'm sorry.

We'll finish for today with this beautiful, but critically endangered animal.  The White-Cheeked Gibbon. 

 I believe this is a young female, but I could be totally wrong.  The PDZA website says that they are all born white, but turn completely black by 1-year of age.  Females turn back to cream after that.  

 So it could be a young male that is just turning black too.  I'm not sure.  But male or female, it's absolutely beautiful.

She looks as sad as I am that their forest range is being fragmented and destroyed for human use.  Unfortunately, people say these creatures shouldn't be kept in zoos, but if not, they'll soon be gone.  And then forgotten. At least zoos can increase awareness of their plight and hopefully inspire people to have more care of this world and it's inhabitants. 

So that's it for today.  Next post will be a relatively (no pun intended) short one with the inhabitants of the Aquarium and the nearby Olive Garden. 

Cheers!

xoxo

Nikon D3300