When Daddy Comes to Town

Unlucky for him and lucky for me, my dad was traveling again this last week. So he stopped in Minneapolis on his way from Tampa to Salt Lake City. We spent a great day at the Como Zoo and Conservatory. The seal was so fun to watch, he swam back and forth in a very defined pattern for a really long time. He looked so much like a water puppy that I couldn't help but fall in love with him.

Isn't he adorable!?

I have never seen a polar bear in real life and was astounded at the shear size of them. One paw weighs 25 pounds, on one bear that is 100 pounds of nothing but foot! Talk about a podiatrists dream...

He kind of looks like a large puppy, but I was still glad to be on the opposing side of the glass from him.

The cutest animals in the zoo were the arctic foxes, they still had their white winter coats on. I really wanted to pet and cuddle one of these guys. I don't think that any such desires were reciprocated by the foxes, so once again I believe it was good that I was on the opposite side of the fence.

He had me before hello...

There were quite a few other animals, but I need room to discuss the flowers in the conservatory. So beautiful, both to look at and to sniff. I may have been the only person there weird enough to get down on my knees to smell individual flowers to figure out which ones were the ones that smelled so amazing. It turns out it was the mix of flowers not one individual flower that was so amazing.

Some type of awesome iris

I have no idea, but they are awesome and terrifying

Something tells me these are Freesia - they were a delightful aroma

 Near the end of our day we found the most amazing Japanese style garden. The whole atmosphere of the garden was lovely.

look at the reflective surface of the water!

My dad and I in the Japanese garden

I like it when my dad comes to town!