Brew at the Zoo

Subtitle: Richie and Kelly's Birthdays

Saturday I spent the whole of the afternoon at the Baltimore Zoo. It was "Brew at the Zoo," an event where local breweries and wineries host a "tasting" of their latest and greatest concoctions. There were two live bands, Faded Image and Cheap Date, both of which did covers, but Faded Image really impressed me with great vocals. [Note on photo: A metal sculpture of a lion is very hot on skirted legs in 90 degree weather, Just sayin'.]

I can't drink a whole lot of beer just for the sake of drinking a lot of beer. For those who don't know me personally, my body doesn't like to burp, so if I drink carbonated beverages too quickly, I end up in a ton of discomfort because all of that air just sits in my stomach. That said, I drank DuClaw's Venom, Tommyknocker's Tundrabeary Ale and Jack Whacker Wheat Ale, and Magic Hat 9. I think my personal favorite was Tommyknocker's Jack Whacker Wheat Ale with their Tundrabeary Ale coming in a close second. Good stuff.

While we were there we did the whole zoo thing, which was neat because in 4 1/2 years, I've never been to the Baltimore Zoo. It's a nice zoo, although we did the speedy tour given the 90-ish degree heat and the lack of beer allowed in the actual zoo.

Here are a few of my favorite animal photos, although my best quality photos will be on Found Beauty. These are just the cute ones.

I heart polar bears. Before I had my very own wiener dog, polar bears were my favorite animal. (Don't tell Elliott that cats are my third.) This was taken through glass, but we were only about five feet away from this guy.


Someone made a joke yesterday that all we saw of the the fastest animal alive was it laying around. This isn't a great photo because of the dirty glass, but what a pretty animal.




This was the highlight of Dave's zoo visit - he just loves penguins. I'm not sure they were crazy about being in the heat, but it was feeding time so they managed just fine.




Elephant-butt. This is the best I could get given the circumstances, but I do like elephants. Plus, they are a zoo staple, really.





And this was Rob's favorite. Most of my chimpanzee photos turned out pretty bad because the glass I took the pictures through was so smudged, but this one came out okay. This was one of two chimp babies in the exhibit. (And I was relieved not to see any apes. I absolutely hate ape exhibits. Why? Because you look in their eyes and JUST KNOW that they are miserable. They are far too smart not to know where they are. Creeps me out.)

So as we were walking, I spotted this guy (I forget his name... Dave, maybe?) who looks to me what Richie will look like when he has matured. It was so strange that it even creeped Richie out. Don't you think this could be Richie in twenty years?


Here's a photo that I kind of ordered everyone to take. These are some of my best friends, though, so they don't mind much when I get bossy. That's the beauty of friendship - they just ignore me if I irritate them. :) I don't think I irritated them here, though. This was just for fun. [Right to left: Rob, Jill, Kelly, Dave. This is BFF, Jill... as in "IDK, my BFF, Jill."]

Lastly - a partial group photo. Richie's eyes are shut, but I used this one because Dave is in it. Happy Birthday Richie & Kelly. :)