Sunday, April 28

Once again the spring has brought with it a multitude of "things to do"!  Andy has been busy keeping up with the early mowing and has already tilled the garden twice.  He has some starter plants in his greenhouse, tomatoes, green peppers, cauliflower and cabbage are among the plants awaiting warmer weather so they can be set out. 
Last Tuesday, I went to see one of my former students and basketball players, Devan Boggs, play in one of her final softball games for Capital University.  The weather was perfect and they defeated Ohio Northern in both of the double header games.  Devan plays short shop and has the top batting average on her team.  She also broke the season record for doubles for the entire conference.  You can tell she is a great leader on the team.  She is one of three seniors on the team this year.

My sister flew in from Atlanta last Wednesday so the last few days have been filled with visits to the Madison House and some fun things sprinkled in as well.  The weather has not been the best for her warm weather tastes, but we are making do.  Yesterday, she and I went on a docent planned trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo.  We left our zoo at 7 am on a charter bus and spent the day exploring the hilly zoo in Steele Town.  Although it rained nearly the entire day, we still had a very enjoyable time.

When we arrived, we saw a sea lion training

Meer cats in the children's discovery building

This zoo kept our polar bear girls until our Polar Frontier was completed.

One of my favorite exhibits, this is part of the original zoo.  There is a black bear in each doorway..

Despite the rain this was a beautiful setting.  We could see the elephant yard in the background giving the appearance of looking over the African savannah.

This was a baby ring-tailed lemur at the top of the branch.

This was in the primate building.  I apologize but I do not remember which monkey or ape this is.

Another mixed species exhibit with an ostrich and a herd of spring bok deer

a beautiful Amur leopard

African lioness sisters

The Amur tiger had just gotten his Sunday bone.  Our tiger, Mara, that just gave birth to 4 cubs was born at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Snow leopard

 

We finished our day by stopping at Mehlman's Cafeteria in St. Clairsville for dinner before returning to the Columbus Zoo.