I awoke before J and kept quiet in the office part of our suite. I did some things online then went to breakfast around 8:00. There was a note on the breakfast for guests to help themselves to milk and OJ because the proprietor had to go to the hospital to take care of her brother. :( I wasn't too excited about having just OJ and coffee cake, so I left in the car to look for a place to get some coffee.

I went to a nearby McDonald's and got a Breakfast Burrito and coffee to go.

I returned to the B&B and ate the Breakfast Burrito and some coffee cake with OJ, and took the too-hot-to-drink coffee back to our suite. I finished a blog entry while drinking the coffee. Then I read more of The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. J was up and out of bed before I went outside around 10:05 to wait for KA and kids to pick me up to go to the zoo. J wanted to stay at the B&B to relax after such a busy schedule lately.

We reached the Philadelphia Zoo around 11:15 and ate some sandwiches in the car for lunch before going into the zoo. I hadn't been to the Philadelphia Zoo since I was in high school or college, and not much looked familiar. The Philadelphia Zoo is the oldest zoo in America, having been chartered in 1859, but its opening was delayed until 1874 by the Civil War. (The Central Park Zoo in New York City was the first to open to the public in 1862.) I was impressed by the number of species — a lot more than the Denver Zoo which I thought was rather large. However, there wasn't quite enough space for the humans at the zoo — it felt crowded. Animal highlights were a baby Pied Tamarin born April 11th and a baby Golden Lion Tamarin baby born on April 18 that were riding around on an adult's back, a baby Sumatran Orangutan born on October 10th, a pair of Southern Ground Hornbills calling to each other, some Naked Mole Rats, a large group (9?) of Giant River Otters swimming around in their enclosure, some Two-Toed Sloths, and an Aardvark pair sleeping in their "den." The exhibits were very nice for general observation, but only a few would be good for photography. I was surprised by the number of displays alongside the enclosures that described the activities of the zoo to not only breed and maintain endangered and threatened species, but also to help maintain the natural populations of endangered and threatened species. There was a special exhibit of Lego animal sculptures, and MA (11) and JA (9) enjoyed collecting the baseball-card sized cards with animal information at each of the exhibits scattered around the zoo. We left around 4:40 and I drove.

We returned to the B&B around 5:40 and I said goodbye to KA and the kids. I chatted w/J a bit, and she had had a nice day to herself. We left around 6:00 and ...

Went to the nearby Bones Grill for dinner. We each had the Cashew-Encrusted Tilapia, but J had snow peas instead of the usual asparagus. The food was really tasty once it finally arrived — I think they had to go catch the fish after we ordered it.

We returned to the B&B around 7:25 and put a load of laundry in the wash. There's a small laundry room right off of our bedroom — very convenient! I started to work up a blog entry and had a piece of leftover cold-oven pound cake for dessert — mmm.