Second Saturday at the Zoo and other Saturday ramblings.

Saturday was a great day.

It started out with a peachy/pink sunrise, which was really beautiful. It had been cold the night before, so everything in Anchorage was dusted in white frost. The amazing thing was that the trees were also dusted in frost -- which was incredible pared with the pastel colors of the sky.

Frank and I went to the Snow City Cafe, which is on the edge of downtown, for breakfast. The service was quite good, and the food was pretty tasty.

Then, we braved the frigid cold to the Zoo's Second Saturday event. On this particular Saturday of each month, the Zoo has a special day open to photographers. The Alaska Zoo is quite small, and most of the animals are rescues and cannot be released back into the wild. They really are taken care of well and seem content.

Many pictures are below, but my favorites were the ravens, Maggie, and the Dall Sheep. The ravens were funny, because of course here you see ravens all the time in town.

We saw at least two uncaged ravens come by to visit/taunt the caged ravens. Maggie the elephant listens to Balinese music all day in her house. She was very smart and I believe took a liking to Frank -- pushing her trunk out to say "Hi". She also beat a stick on the wall and played with her tire swing. The Zoo is also making her a treadmill that should be available next year. However, as soon as we hopped into the elephant house, my lens completely fogged up. So there are no pictures of Maggie.

The Dall sheep were funny because they just sat there and stared at us. The female kept looking at me with her furrowed brow, and the Alpha at the top of the "mountain" was staring at Frank.

Anyways, although it was cold, it was a great day at the Zoo.

The next thing we did was take Galileo to the Pet New Year at the Northway Mall. It appears many people in Anchorage could not pass up an offer to take their dogs to the Mall! Galileo of course was very interested in everything, and even managed to poop on center court, much to our dismay. Once that was done :) we got him microchipped. For being such a good boy, Galileo got a very colorful bandanna. All in all, I think he had a great time!

Next, Frank and I went on our weekly grocery run. We hadn't done it this week, so we had to eat out a lot. Up for food this week is a crimean dish of some sort, Pasta Bolognese, Caldo Verde, and Butternut Squash casserole. Should be a yummy week!