Day 9 ~ To Cincinnati

Day 9 ~ May 24th (my birthday) 

From Georgetown, Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio

We hadn't seen any of Kentucky yet since we got in so late the night before. We were looking forward to seeing some "Bluegrass Country" on the drive up to Cincinnati.

But we didn't see what we expected at all...

 There was this water tower ..."Welcome to WILLIAMSTOWN Gateway to the Bluegrass"

 And this barn was almost completely covered in ivy

And this totally cracked me up...

FLORENCE Y'ALL!!! LOL

I started calling this the "land of steeples"

And this is a cool old water tower, it just doesn't look like it belongs here : )

But we weren't seeing the "Bluegrass" of Kentucky we were expecting. Since we were going to Cincinnati we figured we must be going away from the Kentucky we thought we would see.

And then you come up over a hill and suddenly...

 It's like this magical city just appears

 Cincinnati!!!

I missed the sign that said Ohio when we entered the bridge. It came up so fast.

Some pretty cool stuff in Cincinnati.

We were looking for the Cincinnati Zoo...
What I found really strange is that the Zoo is in a residential area.
I have never been to a Zoo surrounded by houses before.

We finally found the Zoo but there was no big sign, no big parking lot...
You just park on the street next to houses or in one of the little parking lots on a side street
And walk up to a small sign that says it is an entrance to the Zoo.
Ok
It's all good though because we love a Zoo. Any Zoo. And it was my birthday and we were going to the Zoo for my birthday!!!
First stop ~ Africa

I love giraffes! And who doesn't love a baby giraffe?

 This is John! Really... his name is John : )

I didn't get the cheetah's name. They all have names on signs but we didn't have any way of writing them down or remembering them. 

I swear this Polar Bear is smiling : )

I didn't mention that I was in a wheelchair for the day, so Richard took pictures
when I couldn't stand up to see things. Like this...
Swimming Polar Bear underwater

I think he is smiling even underwater : )

And then there was this cutie
Just chillin on his own little island and then floating around and around...

Blowing bubbles...

And this River Otter was really interested in the little girl standing next to me

Ohhhh... the FACE! : )

 And the hair! : )

He looked right at me so I could take his picture.
Now, I know this is just a Pelican and you can see them just about anywhere but I swear this guy was smiling at me and posing for me

And this guy... what???

See the baby in the mommy's lap?

We watched for a while and waited patiently for her to come sit right in front of us so I could see her baby and get this photo

I could have stayed there all day... but there was so much more to see
We went to see the White Lions
These 2 males were sleeping

There were a lot of people trying to get them to wake up but they wouldn't.
Then Richard mentioned that it was my birthday ~

He lifted his head and looked right at me so I could take his picture

And then he laid back down. ~ Thank you ; )

I love Manatees!

This girl loved her trainer who was on the other side of this wall...
 that's why only her tail is sticking out.

I just think this is a cool photo

A baby Red Panda

This was a cool exhibit of night-hunters
I couldn't get a picture without the glare and there was no flash photography allowed but this owl is just so beautiful.

Big sleeping kitty

These boys put on quite a show for us, chasing each other, teasing each other...

A stare down

The elephants were the last animals for us to see. We loved watching this guy give himself a shower.

The one on the right was washing her food. We had never seen that before. She would scoop up the food and dip it in the water before she put it in her mouth.

I could have watched them forever but the Zoo was closing.
And as we were heading to the exit I came face to face with a runaway flamingo

A couple of flamingos had decided to tour the Zoo without permission and were being wrangled up

What a treat for me : ) 

It was a great day at the Cincinnati Zoo!

We headed back to our motel in Georgetown.

We drove into Lexington for dinner at Carrabba's. 

We had a fantastic meal and it was a perfect ending to a great day!

~ The End of Day 9 ~

Only one more day of our trip. Day 10 ~ Lexington, Kentucky to Illinois

Patty Hagedorn Photography