On more than one occasion this year, my wife and I had discussed visiting the Lehigh Valley Zoo since the arrival of Murphy the Giraffe. However, with the constant stream of disruptions that nearly consumed my summer, we could not make the time for it until this weekend—which also happens to be our anniversary.

I took comfort in the fact that summer has not yet left us, despite cooler weather moving in at the end of August. Today, we hit 81F degrees and I loved every perspiration-inducing minute of it. Of course, this meant that several of the animals decided to find a shady corner of their residences and curl up for a nap, but we were not disappointed by those that were active including:

• African Penguins
• African Spurred Tortoise
• Alpacas
• Auodads
• Axolotl (in the reptile and amphibian house)
• Black and White Swans
• Blue Heron (a recurring visitor to the zoo)
• Chuckwalla
• Gila Monster
• Camels
• Zebras
• Murphy the Giraffe (the zoo’s newest attraction)
• Ostriches and Emus
• Scimitar-Horned Oryx
• Mexican Gray Wolf
• Cocatoos, Lories, and Lorikeets in the bird habitat
• Laughing Kookaburra
• … and more!