Heart of Africa at the Columbus Zoo!

Yesterday was the opening of the Heart of Africa exhibit at the Columbus Zoo. Betty White was there for the ribbon cutting in the morning. I didn't get to see her because I went in the afternoon with my friends Michelle and Jeff.

Betty and Jack Hanna. This is the only picture in this post that I didn't take.
Source: Dispatch.

We had to walk past the polar bear exhibit to get to Africa. I love the back view of this dude sunning himself after a swim.

Heart of Africa includes a large open area for lions, giraffes, ostriches, gazelles, zebras and wildebeests.

My "old" friends might remember that I love the lions, so they get their own picture. Apparently there was some mating going on earlier in the day but we missed that.

More of the zoo:

We were also lucky enough to see some babies! The black and white colobus babies are only 3 weeks old (and apparently they're all white when they're little). And we saw the gorilla who is about a year old.

I hate the fence in there, but these guys were so adorable!

The weather couldn't have been more perfect and we got rockstar parking (because Michelle was driving, so of course we did). I hadn't been to the zoo in a long time and it was a great afternoon!

Italian Festival and Wine for Wildlife

Happy Columbus Day! If you have the day off, good for you; if not, sorry. And for my Canadian friends and family, Happy Thanksgiving!

Living in Columbus, I feel like it should be a bigger holiday, but the great thing about Columbus Day Weekend in Columbus, OH is the Italian Festival, which happens to be in our neighborhood. It's not a big festival but it's full of delicious food, two music stages, rides for the kids and ... did I mention the food? We went both Friday night and Sunday afternoon, and we have friends who literally live inside the festival, so we hung out on their patio as well.

We signed up for the new car share program in Columbus. The program starts in a couple weeks and just might persuade us to become a one-car family. Check out our friends' gorgeous dog Chloe.

Saturday we were fortunate enough to attend a fundraiser at the Columbus Zoo called Wine for Wildlife. It was a beautiful night and a LOT of money was raised to support the zoo's conservation and sustainability work. We didn't win any of the auction items, but we did make a donation to the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Dinner was catered by Ruth's Chris Steak House (I'm still dreaming about the sweet potato casserole).

We got to see an Amur Leopard cub up close! Oh, and we drank a lot of wine.

With our friends Ron and Will (check out Aaron's monkey ears!).