Zach knows that I LOVE the zoo! I'm not a huge cuddly animal kind of fan, but I love admiring God's creation. It just shows how perfect God is because who else could produce such different and interesting creatures.
Anyways...back to the zoo. The past two summers Zach has taken me to the Fort Wayne Zoo (which is an awesome children's zoo), but on Friday night he mentioned that he had a plan for Saturday morning--to go to the Indianapolis Zoo. Needless to say I was excited since I hadn't been there since college!
I kept asking Zach if we could go to the dolphin show (and he agreed) and it was our first stop. He took lots of pictures but since the lighting was off we didn't get great ones, but I like this one below.
The trainers can get these creatures to do crazy stuff!
Next up was the "desert" area which consists of you walking through an area with lizards and tortoises and birds (not my favorite).
Next up was the "plains" area. This is by far one of the bests because I love African animals. They are HUGE and so remarkable. I'd love to go on a safari someday (hint, hint Zach :-) )
Good pic of the giraffe! Every time we see a giraffe, I am reminded it has a black tongue. Very interesting fact in case you didn't know.
Very huge and filthy rhino. It just grossed me out how it would roll around in the mud!
New exhibit at the zoo (I think it was put in last year) is the cheetah area. Very lazy animals, but wouldn't you be if you were in a zoo and someone just brought you your food and you didn't have to hunt?!?
My fav picture...an elephant eating some grass.
Second bear picture in 2 weeks but this one was WAY lazier. Such a pretty animal!
Amanda the Red Panda is sleeping, but still taught us that "God listens to you"..."Thank you God". (Thought I'd throw in some Pandamania.)
After the zoo we headed to Keystone to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and along the way we drove through a rough part of town and saw this guy. I just couldn't resist taking a picture and he didn't seem to mind either. I did notice a couple of things after our trip to the zoo:
1) Everyone looks at you strangely if you are at the zoo without children
2) The Indianapolis Zoo seemed so much larger as a 6 year old than it does as a 26 year old.
Overall it was a great Saturday morning with my favorite guy!
These hiking pictures were taken early on the trail because if they were taken later, we wouldn't have been smiling so much.
Like I said...if you look closely, I was sweating quite a bit. I am pretty sure I did not bring enough water for the hike. 
They had quite a few steep hills, which apparently means biking down them can be dangerous to your health. 
My favorite part of the trip was finding a black bear. Emily told me that the park we were at had a large black bear population (approx. 2 bears per square mile). Since we only saw one set of bears the whole trip, I have to assume that it is not as many bears as it sounds. 
The pinnacle of our trip was this waterfall. At the halfway point of the hike was this beautiful fresh water lake and waterfall. The water was cool and refreshing...just what a sweaty group of hikers could ask for. 
Following the hike, we were both tired and just wanted to go back to the hotel so I suggested taking a "shortcut" road. The map showed a road called "Big Mountain Rd" and lead out of the park towards our final destination. On paper this looked like the perfect answer to getting back quickly. It turned out the road was a one lane gravel road that was extremely winding and 12 miles long. Our top speed was 7 mph in a subcompact car climbing huge inclines. I guess I should have known better when the sign said that the road is normally closed in the winter and is named "Big Mountain". Not my best decision for routes. 