Best Email of the Day

If you have never bought anything from Abe Books, I recommend it. It's a huge online seller of second-hand books, and it is a great resource if you are a literature student of any kind. Their books are of good quality and are often quite inexpensive. And they sent me a great email today.

We went to the Zoo!

Last Friday I had the pleasure, the absolute pleasure, of visiting the Edinburgh Zoo. I don't think there has ever been a group of people so excited to go to the zoo as our group of five post-grads was that day. It was, in a word, delightful.

The Edinburgh Zoo is, like many places in Edinburgh, on a hill. So as you make your way through the zoo, you find yourself gradually increasing in altitude, until you get views like this: 

Nice, eh?

I'm not going to give you a play-by-play of all the animals I saw that day. I took a lot more pictures than were probably necessary. This is one of my favorites:

Capuchin!

I wish the glare hadn't been so bad at the monkey enclosures. The monkeys were awesome, particularly the baby baboons. 

But while I love pretty much all the animals, the highlight of the day was the Penguin Parade. Yes, that's right. I said Penguin Parade. Every day at the Edinburgh Zoo they invite whichever penguins are so inclined to leave their posh penguin enclosure and parade around the nearby walkway. If there is anything better than penguins, it is the way penguins walk. They are the best. 

The parade is not obligatory; they don't try to coax the penguins out at all, so only those who line up at the gate at the appropriate time become part of the parade. The day I was there, we only got about six takers, but they were still super amusing. The best part was when one started walking straight toward me. Check it out!

Who can you resist penguins? Like these guys:

They look like they really want to interact with all the smitten zoo-goers. In reality, they are sleeping. Whatever, those penguins do what they want!

On the way out of the zoo, we came upon a carved wooden throne, randomly placed in an out-of-the-way clearing. Naturally, this was an excellent photo opportunity.

Well, dear readers, I hope this small taste of the Edinburgh Zoo has whetted your appetite for some adorable animals. Hmm. That came out wrong. What I'm getting at is, go support your local zoo. It's super fun. And who knows? You might even have... AN ADVENTURE!