You won't see THIS on Animal Planet!

Here, play this song to set the mood.

From 2008 03 29 NC...

Yes, you're seeing what you think you're seeing here. I took this picture.

Yesterday, the boys and I joined Maryann and her two sons for the NC Zoo's annual "Wake Up with the Animals" event. We were also offered a sneak preview of the new Watani Grasslands Reserve exhibit, which was a multi-million dollar project to give several African animals a large, free-range habitat, plus close-up viewing of the animals in their habitats.

Close-up, indeed. At least mine is a rated PG-13 photo.

Maryann took MANY MANY MANY more pictures of this exhibition, which can be viewed here.

Photos 137 - 149. Hers are definitely rated R+!

The children were pretty oblivious to this event...Jake asked later in the day about whether I had taken a picture of the elephants "climbing all over each other" and I showed him that I had. I just explained that they were "playing around" and he seemed happy with that. Hopefully he can just mentally compare it with when he and Timmy are wrestling, or when he and Howie the dog are playing around.

Right around lunchtime, it began to rain, and the temperatures fell into the low 40s. It was a cold, miserable walk back to Maryann's van.