THE PORTLAND ZOO::PART I

Yes, the Portland Zoo was my absolute hands down favorite spot in all of Portland.  It's a mere 10 minute drive from the heart of the city, but feels a million miles away.  The grounds are landscaped so well that you feel like you have stepped into a remote forest instead of a city zoo. The bear exhibit was the most impressive, you really felt like you were standing right next to a bear, so much so that when a bear came sidling next to the glass inches from me I let out a swear word and had to profusely apologize to all the parents around me (for those of you that don't know me that well, it takes a lot to get me to use a swear word).  As far as I could see there were no bars in the entire zoo, which as both an animal lover and photographer made my heart sing. I know there are many people that eschew the zoo, my husband kept repeating that it was such a depressing place.  As someone that studied at one of the most prestigious zoo's in the country I can tell you that it is even more depressing to think what would happen to a lot of these animals if they were in the wild.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of poaching going on for the most fanciful of things, rhino horn which is supposed to be a cure all, is made up of nothing more than keratin (same stuff as your fingernails), the saddest part of this poaching is a rhino's horn can grow back, but the rhino is often killed for his horn.  Talk about a bunch of stupid enterpriser's, why not just grow some rhino horn? But back to the beauty of the Portland Zoo, I loved it.  I have one more set of photographs from the zoo to share soon. I didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have liked.  It was raining off and on during our visit to the zoo and I didn't have any protective covering on my camera. If I lived in Portland this would be a place I would visit on a regular basis.