My birthday celebration

For the past 22 days, my blog posts have been all about the art and recycling.  This post is all about fun and how I spent my birthday.

On Thursday

I spent a disappointing hour or so looking for herbs.  Mostly all I saw was a bunch of annuals, flowers that bloom one year and die.  Not for me.

I knew Friday was going to be

a great day when I followed this little robin all over the yard.  You can see what the rain had done to the yard and street.  Lots of clean-up ahead, but not on bEARTHday.

When my friend and neighbor Sally asked what I wanted for my birthday, 

I asked to go to the zoo.

Off we went on a PERFECT day.

I have over 300 photos, but I'll share just a few today and more tomorrow.

The lily pond looks really sad.

I didn't remember this statue from before,

or the flamingos, either.

A closer look

showed how contorted they get when sleeping.

This is probably not one of those photos on most people's cameras!

Sally wanted to ride the tram, so we did.  I had trouble keeping people out of the shots, because there were kids and parents everywhere.

Everyone loves giraffes, but this was as close as I got to them on the tram.

The same was true at the Gorilla Forest.

Lots of photos later, this is where our new elephants are stored.  Their new home is still being built, as can be seen by the new landscaping in progress.

One final photo of Sally at the Zoo and we were off across town.

We drove through downtown

across the river
past sculptures

and historic buildings

until we got here, which was across town.  It was Sally's choice, not mine.

The lunch menu


was awesome in that there were vegetarian and gluten free choices, something I rarely see elsewhere. I got the tri-colored vegetable penne with asiago garlic alfredo and sauteed shrimp.

While we waited for our soup (for me) and salad (for Sally), I opened Sally's card and found a gift card, too.

Thinking I might save this for a T post, I took a photo of our water with lemon, too.

First came soup, which I remembered to take a photo of not long after I received it.

I can't say the same for the shrimp penne, though.

Sally must have been responsible for this, a big surprise.  I laughed at the 21st birthday.  What a fun finale to the meal.  I loved the beautifully decorated plate, too.  Of course, I insisted that Sally share it with me.

Thanks for sharing my Earth Day birthday with me.   More photos at the zoo tomorrow.  For now, this post is long enough.  Thanks also for your lovely visits.  Have a wonderful weekend.