Wildlights

The Columbus Zoo has a special program every December called Wildlights. They cover the zoo with (energy-efficient LED) Christmas lights and extend the zoo hours into the evening to allow people to enjoy the light displays. The lights always look fantastic, but it is always chilly. We went to Wildlights this evening, and it was frigid. To make the temperatures more bareable, the zoo sells hot chocolate and has several of the indoor displays open, so you can sip a hot drink and/or got inside a building to thaw out a bit.

First, some of the beautiful light displays:
See the hippo?

Moose!

The polar bears were outside, but there is a nice display indoors about polar bears and global warming/climate change. We warmed up in this building, and took a few silly pictures too.

Making a friend?

Dave & Amy pet the bear; Brian and I observe but do not offer our hands to the wild animals.

Another popular indoor display is the manatee tank. Today I saw 2 manatees. The smaller one had some boat motor damage on its side. The stuff floating on the top of the water is lettuce.

Dave & Amy:

Rick, Dave, and Brian, posing in the manatee building:

Han with a tall toy soldier: