In May, while in Dallas for the Chihuly exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum, my family and I also visited the Dallas World Aquarium, which is misleadingly named. Sure, there are tanks of fish, sharks, and anemones. But there are also naturalistic exhibits of penguins, otters, manatees, and crocodiles, and the compact, three-story building is dominated by a marvelous rainforest exhibit, with a central atrium planted with towering trees and open-air enclosures of monkeys, tropical birds, and sloths, like this adorable creature.

He was being fed (a flower, I think) by a zoo employee as he hung upside-down from a tree planted in the middle of the path, outside of any enclosure save the main building. We watched his slow movements for a while, entranced by his anime-cartoon-character face.

This baby monkey was chewing experimentally on a tree branch…

…while hanging securely on his mother’s back.

In one of the aviaries, a toucan gave us a beaky stare for a while…

…before pretending nonchalance.

There were many beautiful birds, including this roseate spoonbill.

As you descend from the treetop exhibits on the upper floors, you find more traditional aquarium exhibits, including these otherworldly anemones…

…which glowed and waved their colorful tentacles.

From the top floor you can look through the atrium all the way to the bottom floor, where manatees swim in a deep pool studded with naturalistic rock formations. If you go to the bottom floor you can watch them at eye level through an underwater window. “Sea cow” is a fitting nickname for this placid, blimp-like creature. I was reminded of the wild manatee we spotted in the Florida Everglades a couple of years ago.

This one was playful and kept doing the backstroke as he passed the window.

A quick flip right-side up, and off he goes.

You can view the shark tank from above as well—the exhibit resembles a limestone-ringed cenote (Mexican water-filled sinkhole), a nice effect. From below, in an underwater tunnel, you can watch the sharks swim over your head.

This toothy-nosed, wide-mouthed creature hardly looks real, but the sawfish is a type of shark that uses its rostrum to flush out prey from the sea floor.

Whee! This sawfish soared up behind a visitor sitting on a bench in the viewing tunnel, making for an amusing image.

We had a wonderful time at the Dallas Aquarium, and I especially recommend it as a place to spend two or three hours indoors on a hot summer afternoon.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Bundled up in coats, scarves, and seldom-worn gloves, we spent several enjoyable hours at the acclaimed Fort Worth Zoo yesterday before driving home to Austin, following a post-Christmas trip to Dallas to visit my DH’s extended family.

Among the many birds we saw at the zoo, these colorful flamingos were my favorite. An entire flock stood comically on single skinny legs, heads tucked into their back feathers, eyes shut tight against the sparkling light and blue skies.

The result of too much late-night reveling?

Or maybe just a peaceful way to soak up the warming rays of the sun.

A taller and more orange variety of flamingo preened and strutted nearby, not at all interested in taking naps.

This little burrowing owl had fluffed his feathers against the cold as he stood on one leg by his burrow, soaking up the sun.

Likewise, a fox lay curled up in the sun next to his hole and tucked nose to tail for a winter’s nap.

Another look

Unbothered by the cold, a pair of Siberian tigers were active and alert. This one posed majestically.

You can see a little snow on the ground at his feet.

Next door a pair of orange tigers rather more reluctantly ventured outside. The female promptly lay down and let the male lick her head.

He also snarled at her a couple of times.

She was unfazed.

I snapped a lizard mural on the wall of a building and accidentally inverted the colors when I was rescaling the image size. I like it better this way, actually.

More zoo art appeared on a gorgeous gate decorated with Texas scenery: live oaks, road runners, opuntia, agaves, etc.

Steel cut-outs like this owl on a tree make up the body of the gate…

…while bas-relief tiles of native animals decorate the upper portion of the gate. It really was stunning.

The wonderful Texas Wild! exhibit features native fauna from the different regions of Texas. Educational signs give information about the geographical features of each region as well as some of the plants and animals that live there. This sign about the Texas Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau, which reaches east to Austin, says that we have the largest white-tailed deer population in the world. Egad! No wonder deer are camped out in my front yard and my neighbors’ every night.

A surprise 3 inches of snow had fallen in Dallas and Fort Worth on Christmas Eve, and patches of it still remained as late as yesterday, to my kids’ delight. Snowball throwing ensued.

The zoo’s many palms were burlapped against the freezing weather. But plenty of other plants, like this ornamental cabbage, don’t require such pampering to look good in winter.

Miscanthus grass puts on a big show in fall…

…but also looks great in winter if left standing like this beautiful specimen.

We had a great time at the zoo and even relished the cold weather. But I’m planning to work all day in my garden today, trimming trees and thinning shrubs, so I’m hoping for a slight warm-up. I haven’t seen the forecast yet, but I’m feeling hopeful.

All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

While in Houston last weekend, we visited the marvelous Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

We enjoyed a fun, interactive exhibit about insects (not just butterflies), looked at displays of preserved specimens and live creepy-crawlies, and gazed through a protective, see-through case to watch newborn butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.

But the best part is the three-story glass building that houses a simulated rainforest and hundreds of live butterflies fluttering all around you. Everywhere you look you see them, and if you’re lucky they may even land on you for a few minutes.

Monarchs were hanging from branches like autumn leaves.

The rice paper butterfly was one of the largest I saw.

These butterflies were busy making caterpillars…

…which will ultimately end up pupating in here, I expect. As you examined the chrysalises, marveling over the different shapes and colors, you’d see one or two wiggle, showing that their occupants were almost ready to emerge. We saw two butterflies emerge, wet and wrinkled, before our eyes.

It was our third or fourth visit to the Cockrell Butterfly Center and still as interesting and entertaining as ever.

Driving down Kirby, I had to stop and take a picture of Goode Co. Bar-B-Q’s Texas-centric sign. I’ve lived in five states and visited many others, but I’ve never seen one that brags on itself like Texas. Some people may think it off-putting, but I find it charming, like the roguish but fun-loving character of Jack in Sideways. I can’t resist the appeal of a place where people are just so damn happy to be there and to share their good fortune with you.

And the barbeque is really good too.

All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.