{"id":12215,"date":"2016-11-30T19:57:04","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T03:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2016-11-30T19:57:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T03:57:04","slug":"a-zoo-and-an-aquarium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/2016\/11\/a-zoo-and-an-aquarium\/","title":{"rendered":"A Zoo and an Aquarium"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was in Ohio last month for the Ohio LinuxFest I added a day on to my trip to visit the Columbus Zoo<\/a>. A world-class zoo, it’s one of the few northern state zoos that has manatees and their African savanna exhibit is worth visiting. I went with a couple friends I attended the conference with, one of whom was a local and offered to drive (thanks again Svetlana!).<\/p>\n

We arrived mid-day, which was in time to see their cheetah run, where they give one of their cheetahs some exercise by having it run a quick course around what had just been moments before the hyena habitat. I also learned recently via ZooBorns that the Columbus Zoo is one that participates in the cheetah-puppy pairing from a young age. The dogs keep these big cats feeling secure with their calmness in an uncertain world, adorable article from the site here: A Cheetah and His Dog<\/a><\/p>\n

Much to my delight, they were also selling Cheetah-and-Dog pins after the run to raise money. Yes, please!<\/p>\n

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As I said, I really enjoyed their African Savanna exhibit. It was big and sprawling and had a nice mixture of animals. The piles of lions they have was also quite the sight to behold.<\/p>\n

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Their kangaroo enclosure was open to walk through, so you could get quite close to the kangaroos just like I did at the Perth Zoo. There were also a trio of baby tigers and some mountain lions that were adorable. And then there were the manatees. I love manatees!<\/p>\n

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I’m really glad I took the time to stay longer in Columbus, I’d likely go again if I found myself in the area.<\/p>\n

More photos from the zoo, including a tiger napping on his back, and those mountain lions here: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pleia2\/albums\/72157671610835663<\/a><\/p>\n

Just a couple weeks later I found myself on another continent, and at the Barcelona Aquarium<\/a> with my friends Julia and Summer. It was a sizable aquarium and really nicely laid out. Their selection of aquatic animals was diverse and interesting. In this aquarium I liked some of the smallest critters the most. Loved their seahorses.<\/p>\n

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And the axolotls.<\/p>\n

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There was also an octopus that was awake and wandering around the tank, much to the delight of the crowd.<\/p>\n

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They also had penguins, a great shark tube and tank with a moving walkway.<\/p>\n

More photos from the Barcelona Aquarium: https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pleia2\/albums\/72157675629122655<\/a><\/p>\n

Barcelona also has a zoo, but in my limited time there in the city I didn’t make it over there. It’s now on my very long list of other things to see the next time I’m in Barcelona, and you bet there will be a next time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in Ohio last month for the Ohio LinuxFest I added a day on to my trip to visit the Columbus Zoo. A world-class zoo, it’s one of the few northern state zoos that has manatees and their African savanna exhibit is worth visiting. I went with a couple friends I attended the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12215"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12223,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12215\/revisions\/12223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princessleia.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}