Free Willy - Whale Watching and Dolphins Diving

Leaving the harbour, it was a very grey looking day.


First sea creature sighting... Sea Lions i think...

This is way out by the Channel Islands, you can see the low cloud that is still around making everything very gloomy.

Believe it or not this is my first whale sighting. Not exactly the breaching blue whales I was hoping to see, but you can see the slight splash in the water made by a Killer whale.

Squeek Squeek!!!

Santa Barbara Zoo

After realising I missed the Whale Watching Tour for Saturday (plus totally inappropriately dressed to be heading way out into the Ocean) I decided to keep the animal theme going and go to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Other big bonus it had was that its so easy to get to, just catch the 25c waterfront bus!

Scarlet Macaw - Common in the Amazon basin, these macaws create strong pair bonds and mate for life. Mates sow affection by mutual preening and licking faces. Somehow I can't imagine being licked by a giant parrot!



Baja Blue Lizard - from the deserts at the tip of Baja California.

Pink Toe Tarantula.... insy winsy spider climbed up the water spout...

No, this isn't a rental in Sydney - they are Madagascar Hissing Hockroaches, and they are HUGE.

Military Macaw from Mexico through South America.

Polly want a cracker?

Blue and Gold Macaw - most of the signs read soemthing scientific about the animal, this one said... These expressive birds from Mexico and northern South America will cock thier heads, vocalise, ruffle freathers, prance and shake thier tail feathers. Shake it shake it shake it baaaaaby.

Chilean Flamingo - did you know Egyptians used the flamingo hieroglyphic as the symbol for "red". There you go - I bet your day is better now that you know that.

Ring-tailed Lemur - I wanted to bring one home for Boston, so cute!

Humboldt Penguin - they were malting, and so looked a little sick.

A strange attraction - appeared to carry a large amont of small humans that made a lot of noise.

Hardly needs an introcution... but you can see the nice view that the Zoo has.

Cacti

Girrafes - not as funny as the ones at Sydney Zoo.

Caught Murray snoozing :)

Red-tailed Hawk - from California.

White handed Gibbon.



Amur Leopard- China

Blue Crowned Pidgeon

Snow Leopard

Domestic Sheep! Yes - thats right - sheep at the zoo! Clearly they weren't the most popular exhibition.

All in all, pretty good. A little disapointing as much of the zoo was closed for renovations. Probably only 3/4 open. But a nice small zoo all the same.

Mothers Day in Sydney - Part 2

As if viewing the harbour, a ferry ride, the Chinese Gardens, a walk through the city, Circular Quay and dinner at Manly wasn't enough... we were up early on Sunday morning to see what else we could fit into Mary's short stay with us.After much deliberation we decided to go to Taronga Zoo. I was a little hesitant at first, thinking that a Zoo was a Zoo. But this is a Zoo to be seen. Located on the North Shore of Sydney Harbour just about every animal has a magnificent look out over the water.




The Elephant enclosure was fantastic, with hundreds of people crowding around to see them bath. You can also look inside the Elephant Barn, where you can see where the zookeepers do thier washing, grooming and feeding of Elephants. The Meercats were too cute - I just wanted to reach over the fence and pop one in my handbag to bring home for Boston. I'm sure that they would have gotten along like a house on fire! By far the funniest animal we saw was the Giraffe though. No matter how hard it tried, its tounge just couldn't reach the carrots that the bigger ones were being fed.



After enjoying all the views and the animals at the zoo we had a couple of hours before Mary had to be at the airport. We decided that a short visit to Bondi was in order. There we enjoyed a quick coffee and a walk along the beach. After a busy weekend, that was really all we had the energy for.



It was a great weekend all up, and we look forward to having our next visitor in Sydney that we can use as an excuse to be tourists!