Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Ah yes, just one day of the weekend isn’t enough.  As I said, we spent the day Saturday with our son Brian, his girlfriend Kim and our daughter Gail and our son-in-law Derek down in Suisun at the jetski races with a barbecue following the races.

Brian and Kim had also invited us to go to the Sacramento Rivercats game on Sunday afternoon so we were up and running early again.

Sundays my husband plays golf at the William Land Park golf course in Sacramento.  With the costs of gas and time it seemed easier for me to just tag along with him to his golf game so he wouldn’t have to return home (35 miles away) to pick me up.

As it happens, the Sacramento Zoo is also in William Land Park so I was able to walk over and visit the zoo again.   The Sacramento Zoo has changed a lot over the years.  Back when our kids were small and we took them there many of the animals were in open grotto type displays.  They were made of concrete which was made to look like rock.  There had been large moats to keep the animals from coming up to the fences but you could see them walking or lying about.  The large open exhibits are gone now and only animals like the zebras, gnus and giraffes have large open dirt and rock areas where they can walk and exersize.

Since it was early morning when I was there, the animals were all waiting to be fed or their enclosures cleaned but at least they were out and not hiding.  The only ones still in their stalls were the giraffes.

Large cats are some of my favorite animals to see at the zoo.  With the remodelling of the zoo the cats are now in large cages with glass and heavy fencing keeping the public from getting too close.

The jaguar was sitting patiently waiting for his breakfast to show up. *edit*  Excuse me, that’s actually a snow leopard and I mistakenly referred to it as a jaguar. *end edit*

Moving along I came to the lion exhibit.  I just walked up and heard this loud ROAR and saw the male lion lunge at the window at me.  I was startled and didn’t get a photo of him pouncing, all I could think of was the lion in San Francisco who killed the late night zoo visitor.  I looked up at the window and fencing and decided it was definitely sturdy enough to keep him from me.

 When the lion decided he couldn’t get to me he wandered back to await his food too.

Moving along the next group of large cats were the tigers.  There were four of them in the enclosure but they were so active, I could never get all four in the picture.  They seemed rather playful that morning.

Of course the primates are also entertaining to watch.  The larger ones like this orangutan seem happy enough to just sit and stare back at the zoo visitors though.

After spending a couple of hours walking around the zoo I headed back to the golf course, I knew the guys would be done soon.

My husband and I drove to another part of Sacramento and parked the car so we could ride the transit bus to the Rivercats baseball stadium.

Brian had gotten us all really good seats.  We were in row 9 just behind the dugout along the third base line.  Now they would have been perfect seats if it were a night game.  However since it was an afternoon game the seats were in full sun and it was definitely a hot day.

I stayed in my seat as long as I could stand it then I went up to the shade.  The crowd was small that day and there were lots of empty seats.  Luckily the stadium ushers aren’t insistent that you sit in your own seat, they knew the sun was unbearable.  I found one just below the shade line and waited for the shade to reach me.  Before the game was over, Brian, my husband and the others found me and moved up to the shade as well.  I’m surprised they lasted in the sun as long as they did.

I’ll end with a few photos of the Sacramento Rivercats baseball stadium and the Sacramento skyline and the tower bridge.

 

 

It was a fun weekend with the kids but we sure were worn out by the time it was over!