Zoo Fine

The wind chill is now 33, but yesterday was a sunny 73--actually higher on some thermometers--so I went to the zoo and nearly did my knees in.  I hadn't yet photographed the Lied Jungle or the Desert Dome and managed both and more.  That's how I'm able to show the signature original for the model in the last photo of the previous entry, as noted, "the world's largest glazed geodesic dome"--it's acrylic--over "the world's largest indoor desert," which has probably been surpassed somewhere now as other zoos have been catching up to what the Reader's Digest named the best American zoo in 2004.  Three different kinds of acrylic panels warm it, cool it, let in sunlight.

A visit to the zoo's website will explain the dome is 13 stories tall, covers over an acre, and sits on top of "the world's largest nocturnal exhibit," the Kingdoms of the Night, in its dark basement.  The central "mountain" is 55' high, centered over three deserts, the Namib, the Australian Red (think of Ayers Rock), and the Sonoran.  The black ball at the photo right is a stone global map supported and slowly turned by a large water jet in the summer.