Zoo Blvd

Sept 1st DPB Theme Day - Street Sign
This is what most of Wichita's residential street signs look like. I thought this one would go nicely with the Zoo photos, as it is Zoo Blvd. The Sedgwick County Zoo was began in 1963 (planning stages), so this stretch of city street was given this special name sometime after that.

Grizzly #2

This is the other Grizzly Bear. The pool in yesterday's photo is at the base of a rock wall formation, which has rocky steps to reach the top. This is the other bear in the exhibit and was seen walking along the top edge of the wall. Both photo's of the bears were taken through thick glass, hard to tell - they turned out as if there was nothing between me and the bears.

Grizzly Bear

This Grizzly found a way to keep cool, on a HOT summer day. It was fun to watch as the bear paced back and forth along the water's edge (just getting his feet wet). I figured when he was ready he would simply walk down into the pool. All of a sudden, he lept into the air above the water - (picture Superman in flight) and as quickly as he entered the air, he splashed down "belly buster" style. It was quite entertaining to see the bear in mid air with arms and legs outstretched. I don't know about the other hot and sweaty spectators, but I couldn't help imagining how nice it would be to dive in with him. He looked so friendly, just like a big ol' teddy bear. There are two Grizzly's in this exhibit, I'll show you the other one tomorrow. They have a very nice "Bear home" at the Sedgwick County Zoo. It closely resembles a natural habitat.

Gorilla

This gorilla was interesting to watch as he strolled past the viewing area. He would take a few steps, and then pause (or pose). It was as if, he has learned that if he stops and holds still, he'll see flashes of light from cameras. He did this three or four times. He even turned his head towards the viewing area. What a ham he was, I couldn't help but like him. They have a very nice outdoor area to run, climb, tumble and play - and a nice air conditioned building to come into when the weather is bad, for feeding, and at bedtime.

Humboldt Penguin

Wichita is home to the Nationally renowned Sedgwick County Zoo. It's the 18th largest in the US and is Kansas's most popular tourist attraction. This year a Penguin exhibit was opened. Here's a picture of one that swam right up to the glass, observing me, as I was observing him. Humboldt Penguins come from South America's rocky coastal waters of Chile and Peru. They are named after the Humboldt current that runs up the west coast of South America from Antarctica. I hope they do well in their new Kansas home.

Dragging Douglas

When turning around from yesterday's photo, this is the view looking towards the west. This stretch of city street through downtown Wichita used to be popular among the young crowd of "new" drivers. That was before the internet. High school students would cruise up and down Douglas Avenue, and the term for this activity was "drag Douglas". They would congregate, driving back and forth, showing off their first cars, and meeting other people around their age. It wasn't uncommon on a Friday or Saturday night to be asked "wanna go drag Douglas", or "let's go drag Douglas". I don't think it goes on much these days, but am not sure. Guess I'll have to venture downtown on a Friday or Saturday evening and see if young drivers are still bumper-to-bumper; honking, waving, hollering out of car windows, flirting, and revving engines. Does your city have (or did it use to have) this kind of driving activity in it's past?

Douglas Avenue

Douglas Avenue is a main street running east and west, through the heart of downtown Wichita. In it's early days it was a dirt road traveled by; horseback, covered wagons, buggies, and early Automobiles. Eventually, this road was "paved" with red brick, and as time progressed most of the brick has been replaced, or covered with blacktop and/or concrete. Douglas is the dividing line between "north" and "south" Wichita addresses.

This is a "looking east" view along Douglas. The building with Saturn painted on it, is a hair salon, called Planet Hair.

There are pubs, cafes, antique shops, and other businesses. One of the cafe's along this view is the The Old Mill Tasty shop, it's a great place to enjoy good food in an old fashioned soda shop and cafe. I highly recommend their Chicken Salad Sandwich and Turtle Sundae.

A retired Santa Fe train engine rests atop the railroad bridge(it's always there, no longer used), and is a part of the Great Plains Transportation Museum.

Emporia street is one way, going North only, and downtown Wichita's speed limit is 30 miles per hour.

Also note: the Eaton Hotel (shown earlier on this blog) is hidden by the trees in the right side of the photo. The Eaton Hotel is located close to where Wichita's early day passenger train station was. The old train station building is still there, but today it's an upscale steak house. Wichita hasn't had passenger train service for many years, but many trains travel through the city, hauling loads of all kinds of "stuff".