calgary zoo- entrance...

man i'm having so much fun at the calgary zoo!

so much in fact, i don't feel like wasting a bunch of time from it for a BIG blog post. instead i think i'll take the odd break and give you a part of the zoo at a time. which will still lead to some big posts, as it is a huge zoo :P

the only fair place to start is of course the front entrance, as the calgary zoo's is a bit more interesting then the rest...

the calgary zoo is an official stop of the city's train, but as the train station is in the middle of a big freeway they've had to put a tunnel under the road so you could get to the station. also as the parking lot is on one side of the road and the zoo the other, this tunnel is handy for going to see the animals too (unless you want to play frogger across the road)!

this trip today is my first visit back to the zoo in years! craig used to bring me here all the time when i was a hatchling. just based on the tunnel the zoo has changed a lot...

[Photo credit here]

there used to be some cool statues of prehistoric creatures down here, including a life size mammoth. sadly they're all gone now, and have been replaced by the front gate... which i guess makes sense from an entrance point of view.

however i had some fond childhood memories of those fossil critters. which i guess sadly will have to remain just that... memories.

the walls of these tunnels were always cool, as they had pictures of zoo animals built into them. unlike when i was younger, these days they have some very neat coloured lighting to give the whole system a neat feel.

one the left side (when walking towards the zoo) there are all the living animals of the zoo. which are neat and cool, but my favourite side is the right...

as of course here they have pictures of all the extinct animals displayed (mostly through statues) at the zoo...

they are pretty old skool... being something like 25ish years old...

but i still like them! especially as they haven't changed a bit themselves since i was a kid. the new lighting now almost highlights the fact i'm looking at a small unchanged part of my past. the object is the same, but i'm not (and neither is the light)... i just think it is neat.

towards the end of the hall is my favourite of these wall pictures. the ominous, yet not all on the wall (as he doesn't fit), t-rex. to me going through this hall and seeing all these pictures meant a fun time was about to ensue...

which still holds up today. i love it when somethings from your childhood doesn't go away!

these two hesperornis were always the sign that a trip to the zoo was underway... as they are the last picture on the wall...

so off i go to check out the rest of the zoo.

stay tuned for the other sections as i visit them!