SABERS UP: Friday evening, we headed to Seattle Center for a special send off. It was time to say goodbye to Carrie Fisher, who passed on Dec. 27, 2016. She was a phenomenal author, actress, comedienne, and fearless advocate for people with mental heath and addiction issues. Fisher was most famous for portraying Pricess Leia in the Star Wars franchise movies. That's how I first met and fell in love with her. :)
Friday evening there was a light saber salute to Fisher at (fittingly) Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. We got there about 7:15 and milled around until the moment of silence at 7:30 p.m.
Even the Stormtroopers had a memorial set up for the princess.
At 7:30, the crowd of about 150 grew quiet for a time of reflection and remebrance.
Shortly after, it was sabers up time to celebrate Fisher's life.
It was a sweat, sentimental time, with people of all ages coming together to celebrate a bright light and brilliant soul.
Members of Garrison Titan, Washington's 501st Legion, were on hand. We've seen them everywhere from the Museum of Flight to Safeco Field over the years!
TO THE ANIMALS: We had a few free passes for the Woodland Park Zoo we had to use before the end of the year, so on New Year's Eve, that's where we headed.
We entered at the West Gate, which meant we saw penguins first, as they're right inside the gate.
They didn't seem to mind the cold of the afternoon.
From there, we wandered toward the Tropical Rain Forest. Almost instantly, we encountered a jaguar on the prowl.
It was energetically stalking around its enclosure.
This lovely creature was pacing the entire time we watched. I wished it had more room to roam, to be sure. According to the zoo's website, they have a male and female jaguar; because these animals are naturally very solitary, they are rotated in the exhibit so you will not see them together.
In the wild, they eat deer, peccaries, monkeys, tapirs, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, small rodents and domestic stock. Amazingly, they can survive on anything from herd animals to insects. At the zoo, they eat beef, mutton, chicken, rabbit, beef knuckle bones and commercially prepared feline diet, ground meat and vitamins.
In the wild, jaguars live about 11 years; in zoos, it's up to 22 years in zoos. So, a longer, but much different life, I'm sure, in captivity.
Here are a few things Annabelle had to say about our zoo visit: "The jaguar was prowling the exhibit, and it was beautiful! It was
making loops around its enclosure, and it was almost posing for photos. After
that we checked out the other exhibits in the tropical rain forest area,
including monkeys and very brightly colored birds. The other notable thing we
saw in the jungle area was the Gorillas and the zoo’s new baby gorilla Yola.
She was very playful and was walking around the enclosure the first time we saw
her, but was curled up in the corner for heat when we walked around the second
time."
This lovely gorilla was laying right up next to the glass, but avoiding eye contact.
Meanwhile, the one pictured below was facing the glass, looking at everyone and heavenward.
Out of nowhere, a little gorilla appeared. It was baby Yola! Yola is a Hausa name that means "firefly." Her mother is Nadiri, one of the gorillas at the Seattle zoo.
We didn't cover a lot of ground at the zoo. We sent more time in front of just a few exhibits. One pretty thing we saw in the Rain Forest exhibit was the golden lion tamarin monkey. It was hard getting photos, as the humidity in there kept fogging up my lens!
He even stood up on his hind legs for a bit. He looked like an oversized Muppet!
One more gorilla (parting) shot. :)
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