Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens
Trying to find something fun to do with the weather cooling down, Bill and I took a visit to the zoo down in the state capital of Columbia, SC. Since Bill lives about halfway between my house and Columbia, I spent Friday night down at his house so we could get an early start - as we were going on a weekend and the park was sure to be busier than a week day.
The zoo is near downtown Columbia, nestled on one side of the Saluda River. It's incredibly convenient to get to as it's just right off the highway. To get to the gardens, visitors take a bridge across the river and follow the winding path up the hill.
Outside the first exhibition hall, the Bird House, was this amazing collection of lawn ornaments. Actually these were the real thing, of course; and boy were these flamingoes pink! They must get a lot of shrimp.
Inside the penguins were awfully cute. Several of them stood at the water's edge with their little wings outstretched. One or two at a time, they would leap in the water, rapidly swim back and forth and literally leap out to stand back their brethren.
	Bill wants to know, since there is no sign, just what kind of penguin this is with a blue blazer and boots.
Bill was a hoot the whole day, discoursing on just what the animals were thinking and what they might say if they could speak. His monologues kept me in stitches.
	Except for this one bird that was quite close to us, it was pretty hard to get many pictures of the small birds in the large aviaries. Trust me though, there were a lot of birds, pretty birds, endangered birds, whistling, chirping, singing, and flying about their enclosures.
I was very impressed with all the animals buildings. The interiors were designed with great motifs of rocky shore lines or bush tents out on an expedition. The ambience really contributed a lot to a good visit.
The Reptile House
Big lizards and small lizards. Lizards in water and lizards in the sand. The exhibition had a lot of lizards.
How cute! and how deadly poisonous!
Not only did the reptile house have a lot of lizards; but they had snakes of all sorts too.
This one was totally creepy climbing out of his hidey-hole and lunging for the tree.
This snake lives only in the water. As we watched, he stretched up to the surface for a gulp of air.
Two things I especially like about this zoo. Just like the Akron zoo that Jim and I went to years ago, the Columbia zoo is an endangered animal preserve holding many special animals and engaging in breeding program trying to keep these animals as part of the ecosystem. The zoo also has many special exhibits that detail wildlife indigenous to the great state of South Carolina.
The Aquarium
Thankfullythe picture of the hideously ugly fish didn't turn out so well; but instead is an interesting picture with reflections of myself and Bill.
At the first large tank with tropical fish and turtles, all the little children went bonkers, crying out "Nemo! Nemo!".
This is just one view of a HUGE tank! There were at least specially designed large windows, curved windows, and porthole windows looking into this tank as you walked through the building.
No, it's not sn@w in SC. There are some beautiful jellyfish. Although they were kinda creepy all sucked up to the glass eating algae.
Outside for the Larger Animals
	Scattered around outside as the enclosures for all the larger animals and you can't get much larger than the elephants.
Speaking of large, the Galapagos Tortoises are the largest and oldest turtles on the planet.
Some of the monkeys in the Monkey House.
	The gorillas must have still be sleeping because we didn't see them outside from the other side of this hill, or inside through this impressive wall of glass.
Well, there's Toucan Sam, so where are the Fruit Loops?
	The larger birds, like this beautiful Macaw and the Toucan, were house in outside aviaries.
It was lunchtime for the Grizzly Bear, and he couldn't be bothered with the zoo visitors.
I got two different types of animals in this one picture. an ostrich a zebra
While the giraffes had a large area to roam in, the zoo had a station built so that the animals could come right up to and stick their heads through the beams of the fence, so that visitors could hand feed them and feel how soft they are.
There weren't many monkeys on Monkey Island; but the ones there were in playful mood swinging, climbing and jumping all around as they chased each other.
Look closer to see the King of the Jungle and his two ladies enjoying the shade.
	There were several young and baby baboons that were kept in line by the older male.
Except for the tree-ripping claws, koalas are so very cute and cuddly-looking.
This guy was in an exhibit right outside and was the most active. He climbed up and down the tree, and walked around the enclosure some. Either he was chilly on this cool SC day, or he wanted inside to be with the other koalas.
Though the sign says we're about to enter the garden, we had to cross a wide river and then climb a huge hill through the woods to get to the actual garden area. Of course, we could have taken a tram that goes from entrance to entrance across the parks. However not only would the exercise in the beautiful weather be good for us; but we're butch and not a couple of wimps.
Two hot studs crossing the bridge over the Saluda River.
I just love looking at places through Google Maps with their satellite view. You can really see the bridge features, along with the rocks and islands in the river.
	The Exhibition Hall in the gardens was a lovely building all to itself, surrounded by century plants, and with the doors flanked by the huge ornamental blown glass flower pots.
The ornamental peppers look just like Christmas light bulbs scattered throughout the bushes. Bill made sure to grab a bunch of the peppers that had fallen off the plants. I'm drying them out and storing them away this winter, so I can plant them next year. I think these would look great most anyway; but I'm thinking of some planter boxes around the pool deck.
These huge beautifully bright Empress Candle plants filled up many section of the gardens. These plants easily grow 10 feet tall and filled out like bushes. I would love to have some of these; but we didn't see any pods or seeds.
From overhead, you can see how the paths criss-cross the garden. That center line is a unique water feature.
Starting just out the exhibition hall, the water flows now the levels in this trough, which is lined with small fountains jetting water into the center.
The waterfall trough ends in a pools at the other end of the garden with a spraying fountain.
	Outside the main garden is another long walkway that travels through a section of woods called the "Shade Garden" featuring plants that grow in the shade naturally. Then at the end of a raised wooden walkway (that goes over the other side of this large hill) is the other entrance and the "Bog Garden". Here water falls down the side of a wall into a large pool filled with plants found in streams, ponds, and boggy areas.
There's one last fountain back outside of the exhibition hall. The tram (that goes down the hill, across the river, and back to the front entrance of the zoo) delivers and picks up people at this point in it's travels. Since we have braved the climb up the hill, we didn't hesitate to take the easier walk back down and across to the zoo. I really enjoyed this zoo (although I think I like the endangered animal zoo in Akron better) and had a good time on my outing with Bill. After leaving the zoo, Bill took me to a Chinese buffet that he used to go to when he worked as a nurse in Columbia, where we stuffed ourselves with a good selection of tasty things. It was the perfect meal to replenish our systems after all that walking through the park.