after thoroughly enjoying the Humboldt penguins outside, we went into the chilly penguin palace. these are king penguins, native to Antarctica. they’re the second-largest penguin type, at about 33 pounds. and so cute.
at one point they all started making a terrific noise in unison, reminding me of the chorus that amy and jim’s dogs break into from time to time. I didn’t have time to videotape it.
for some reason this great big penguin reminds me of the character Gru from the “despicable me” movies.
even though I didn’t get any video, here’s an awesome one from the zoo’s website, showing the darling baby penguins growing up.
in another room were puffins. I was happily surprised to see them, because when kevin and I hiked in wales, we took a boat trip around an island that is world-renown for the huge amount of puffins that come to the island every year. unfortunately we were about a week too late to see the puffins on the island. on the other hand, they told us that people line up at four in the morning in order to get on the boat to see the puffins, and that probably wouldn’t have been the most fun thing to do.
I bought kevin a stuffed puffin at the gift shop.
it was nice inside the chilly penguin/puffin housing because it was getting a bit warm outside.
we only had time to see a few more animals before the zoo closed at five.
ok then, more soon,
mrs. h.