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A Trip to Roger Williams Zoo
On Saturday I took Sebastian out for the day to Roger Williams zoo in Providence. We had a wonderful time.
I'll put one photo outside the cut. Fair warning: this time I'm not resampling them to 75% of the original size. I'm too tired (once again I didn't get to sleep in on Sunday), and I don't know if the effort is worth it.
I'm not going to bother with captions for most of these - you know what they are.
Check out the buck teeth on the one on the left!
Sebastian riding a dog statue. Unfortunately some other kids wanted to ride too, and started clambering up - so I had to pull Sebastian off before he was ready. He was furious. "No!" he screamed, and tried to hit the other kids. He calmed down after a while, though.
I took a number of pictures of just animals, without Sebastian in the shot, but I prefer these.
This was the "WOW!" moment of the day. We'd seen a polar bear in a large fenced-off area; it was pretty cool, but far away. As we moved along (Sebastian doesn't like to dawdle), we came across a slightly mysterious spot: a cavernous viewing area with a giant window set into a polar bear's swimming pool. As we stodd there, the polar bear PLUNGED into the pool right in front of us! He was no more than two feet past the glass, and the bubbles swirled around like a whirlpool. He played for a while with a large blue ball, and then got out again. As we watched, he plunged in again - four more times!
Sebastian was going completely nuts. He was shrieking with delight, his hands held up to his face. I've only seen him in that sort of state of incandescent ecstacy a few times in my life. After the third plunge, he started shouting to the crowd around him. "HIDE, everybody! The polar bear is coming back to get us!". He was laughing like crazy. In fact, he was so deleriously happy that he started blowing kisses to every single person in the entire crowd, and to the polar bear as well.
This is a seal from a different underwater window. There used to be a sea lion who loved to zoom right in front of the window, but he died and the new seals rarely show off that way.
It had been a long day. As we headed home, Sebastian reminded me of a promise: on the way in through Roger Williams Park we'd passed the building where Teri and I got married and had our reception. I'd mentioned it to Sebastian then, but he'd been in a hurry to see the animals - so I'd promised to show it to him on the way out, if he wanted.
And he did. There was a wedding going on there, of course; in fact, they had done theirs the same way we'd done ours, with the ceremony at the little bandstand on the water and the reception in the Casino itself (it's not a gambling casino, by the way - that's just a name).
I posed Sebastian at the top of the stairs to the bandstand (where his mother had stood with her father before making a Grand Entrance) and got this photo. Afterwards we went down to the bandstand itself; Sebastian asked if he was going to marry me (he asks the funniest questions). He made us sit in some of the guest chairs that had been set out for the ceremony, then we went up to the bandstand (he loved the echoes), and threw bread to the ducks, seagulls, and geese that swarmed below - a man nearby gave Sebastian the bread.
As we walked quietly up the stairs toward the car, we could see wedding guests inside the Casino at the reception. And when I glanced over at the other side of the path, I saw the bride and groom walking with the wedding photographer; I suppose it's no coincidence that Teri and I had had some of our wedding photos taken in that very same spot. The groom (a cheerful-looking young man) smiled and waved at us. We smiled, and waved back.
And that was our day! It was wonderful. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, of course.
I'll put one photo outside the cut. Fair warning: this time I'm not resampling them to 75% of the original size. I'm too tired (once again I didn't get to sleep in on Sunday), and I don't know if the effort is worth it.
I'm not going to bother with captions for most of these - you know what they are.
Check out the buck teeth on the one on the left!
Sebastian riding a dog statue. Unfortunately some other kids wanted to ride too, and started clambering up - so I had to pull Sebastian off before he was ready. He was furious. "No!" he screamed, and tried to hit the other kids. He calmed down after a while, though.
I took a number of pictures of just animals, without Sebastian in the shot, but I prefer these.
This was the "WOW!" moment of the day. We'd seen a polar bear in a large fenced-off area; it was pretty cool, but far away. As we moved along (Sebastian doesn't like to dawdle), we came across a slightly mysterious spot: a cavernous viewing area with a giant window set into a polar bear's swimming pool. As we stodd there, the polar bear PLUNGED into the pool right in front of us! He was no more than two feet past the glass, and the bubbles swirled around like a whirlpool. He played for a while with a large blue ball, and then got out again. As we watched, he plunged in again - four more times!
Sebastian was going completely nuts. He was shrieking with delight, his hands held up to his face. I've only seen him in that sort of state of incandescent ecstacy a few times in my life. After the third plunge, he started shouting to the crowd around him. "HIDE, everybody! The polar bear is coming back to get us!". He was laughing like crazy. In fact, he was so deleriously happy that he started blowing kisses to every single person in the entire crowd, and to the polar bear as well.
This is a seal from a different underwater window. There used to be a sea lion who loved to zoom right in front of the window, but he died and the new seals rarely show off that way.
It had been a long day. As we headed home, Sebastian reminded me of a promise: on the way in through Roger Williams Park we'd passed the building where Teri and I got married and had our reception. I'd mentioned it to Sebastian then, but he'd been in a hurry to see the animals - so I'd promised to show it to him on the way out, if he wanted.
And he did. There was a wedding going on there, of course; in fact, they had done theirs the same way we'd done ours, with the ceremony at the little bandstand on the water and the reception in the Casino itself (it's not a gambling casino, by the way - that's just a name).
I posed Sebastian at the top of the stairs to the bandstand (where his mother had stood with her father before making a Grand Entrance) and got this photo. Afterwards we went down to the bandstand itself; Sebastian asked if he was going to marry me (he asks the funniest questions). He made us sit in some of the guest chairs that had been set out for the ceremony, then we went up to the bandstand (he loved the echoes), and threw bread to the ducks, seagulls, and geese that swarmed below - a man nearby gave Sebastian the bread.
As we walked quietly up the stairs toward the car, we could see wedding guests inside the Casino at the reception. And when I glanced over at the other side of the path, I saw the bride and groom walking with the wedding photographer; I suppose it's no coincidence that Teri and I had had some of our wedding photos taken in that very same spot. The groom (a cheerful-looking young man) smiled and waved at us. We smiled, and waved back.
And that was our day! It was wonderful. He fell asleep in the car on the way home, of course.
no subject
area where you can see below water level?
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It's pretty cool, actually.
How to create a fake-looking picture
I actually first tried the picture without a flash, but Sebastian came out pretty dark on that one.