Memphis was the last zoo on our 9-zoos-in-10-days Tour. What a way to end our trip! Memphis has a beautiful zoo with all kinds of great, modern exhibits. The zoo entrance is impressive—you feel like you're in ancient Egypt. Primate Canyon was our first stop—it's great. Such a neat habitat for such a wide variety of primates—gorillas, orangutans, a Sulawesi macaque, and the world's loudest siamangs. The Northwest Passage is one of the best exhibits we've seen for North American animals. We love polar bears. And the sea lion show was first-class. Their exhibit is stunning, with great seating for the show. After that, giant pandas! Memphis is one of only four zoos in the nation with giant pandas, and their CHINA exhibit is stunning. It reminded me a bit of my days in Japan. We caught one of the pandas in action and got some great pics. At the end of our day, we enjoyed the cute little train that wound through all the farm animals. Memphis Zoo definitely makes it into the top 3 or 4 zoos we've seen thus far.

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The train conductor said the San Antonio Zoo is one of the top 5 zoos in the nation. I have to disagree, but it's still nice. We laughed at some crazy, acrobatic gibbons and a black mangabey eating a phone book, page by page. We saw our first baby komodo dragons (cute in a reptilian sort of way)—and brand new baby ibexes too. We really enjoyed the butterfly exhibit. All five of us had a butterfly land on our arm, shoulder or head. Quite an experience. Our favorite part of the zoo was the new hippo exhibit (part of a brand new Africa section being built). You can view the hippos underwater, and one came right up to the glass, smashed his face up against it, and stayed there. It was awesome. Africa's going to be great when it's completed. Another pretty Texas zoo!

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