SB Zoo

Last weekend we stayed the night in Santa Barbara because Chris' work had a holiday party. We had a great time and after staying out until about 3am, we decided to have a lazy day. Getting breakfast with some friends and then heading to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

We thought that the zoo would be crowded because we saw that a cruise ship was docked in the harbor, but thankfully, the zoo was pretty empty. The weather was just gorgeous and we had a wonderful time wandering around.

This Cockatoo was off by himself enjoying the sunshine.

The snow leopard kept pacing at the front of the cage, a larger one was sleeping on a big rock at the back of the enclosure.  

 

There is a neat walk-in aviary filled with many different types of birds. Most hid when we came in, but this duck was just finishing up a bath.

The duck on the left was very colorful! {hard to get a closer picture}

Duck buddies!

We stood in the aviary for a while, Chris was taking inspiration to build a big pond in our backyard.

These Goeldi's Monkeys cracked us up, look at their white mustaches!

Don't they know Movember is over?

Across the water were these Gibbon monkeys on their own island

Looks like a ghost!

While the flamingo's are interesting to look at, they sure smell!

But the three babies were cute to look at, they start out grey and then turn pink as they age.

One of my favorites, the penguins. They have a neat enclosure where you can watch them from above or below the water.

One of their penguins, Lucky, was even on the Today show this morning. He has a special shoe to help him walk.

These two were enjoying eating some pumpkins!

There were many woodpeckers flying around freely as we walked through the zoo. We came upon a tree that had some holes with nuts in it.

The giraffe's were being fed and one got pretty close to us.

They have a nice view of the ocean, just on the other side of the road.

This one just gave birth to a baby boy, he was pretty shy though.

For some reason I always look forward to the Meerkats. This one was like a statue, just sitting...possibly contemplating freedom just over the wall.

They have two bald eagles and they always remind me of my Pawpaw.

These small otters were so funny! We were there at feeding time and they sure screech and growl at each other! They move as a group and then scatter when searching for food. They even got one of their favorite treats, earth worms!

We enjoyed our lazy day at the zoo! If you need somewhere to get away for a few hours, I'd definitely recommend the SB Zoo! {It was even one of the places we considered having our wedding!}