Sara The Camel

Location: Glenboro, Manitoba, Canada
Address: 407 Cochrane St,
Date: Oct 2014
Website: glenboro.com

    Sara the camel has one hump.  That makes her a dromedary or Arabian camel.  Sara stands in a small Manitoba town called Glenboro.  She is about 17 feet tall.. 

  We visited her as we drove from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Regina, Saskatchewan.  Sara has been in Glenboro since 1978.  A camel was chosen to represent the Spirit Sands sand dunes in nearby Spruce Woods Provincial Park.

  You would not expect to find camels or a desert as you drive across Manitoba.  You might not be surprised to find this grey haired Romeo (pictured above) at Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo.  The camel in the picture is a Bactrian or two-humped camel.

  Next door to Sara is the Spruce Woods Inn.  It is named after the provincial park and has soft drinks, fresh coffee and the best hamburgers in town.  Between the inn and the camel we had two reasons to pass through Glenboro on our road trip.  But only one hump.

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Map of Our World
Sara The Camel
Assiniboine Park Zoo

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Post # 281

Ethel M Chocolate Factory & Cactus Garden

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Address: 2 Cactus Garden Dr.
Date: March 2020
Website: www.ethelm.com

    Franklin Mars started the Mars Candy Factory in 1911 with his wife Ethel.  Today Mars makes Snickers, Twix, Mars bars and more.  Ethel is the Ethel M from a popular chocolate factory near Las Vegas, Nevada.

    While in Vegas you can take a short drive to see Ethel M chocolate being made in the factory.  It is made in small batches with no preservatives.

  The tour starts with a taste of some chocolate.  So far so good.  You then wander past the machines where the chocolate is prepared.  Next it is more machines that fill multiple molds and create patterns on top of the chocolates and then put them into cases and boxes.

  The end result is something like the giant chocolate wall at the end of the tour.  Thanks to all the different shapes and patterns you can identify which pieces to eat first when sampling from a box.

  After our tour we enjoyed a chocolate cappucino and some chocolate dipped strawberries. Very nice.

  Next it was outside to take a tour of the cactus garden located just behind the factory.  A little desert after dessert.

  If you still feel like food, there was purple pancake cactus on display.  We don't think they were very edible.

  There was a couple of Joshua Trees.

As well as a nice view of the mountains.

  There was also wildlife to be found in amongst the cactus.  Above is a male Costa's Hummingbird that is known for its purplish head if caught in the right light.  Its head feathers also sort of flare out on the sides.  It was sitting surprisingly still for a hummingbird.

  A small white, grey bird with a yellow head was all over the place.  We managed one good photo of it as it moved from branch to branch faster than we could get it into focus.  These birds are fairly common in Nevada and are known as Verdin.

  We enjoyed our visit to Ethel M.  A great chocolatier knows that chocolate and cactus work well together late in the afternoon.

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Map of Our World
Ethel M Cactus Garden
Ethel M Chocolate Factory

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Post # 280

Leaping Cats

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address: 2920 Zoo Dr.
Date: Feb 2014
Website: www.sandiegozoo.org

    The year 2020 is a leap year.  This February 29th we celebrate one of the animal world's greatest leapers.  The serval is a cat that can jump over 9 feet into the air and over 11 feet distance horizontally.  This allows it to snatch a passing bird right out of the sly.

  We witnessed the serval's jumping skills first hand at the San Diego Zoo.  At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park another cat showed off its skills.  In the photo above a caracal launched itself and twisted upside down so it was parallel to the ground.  It did this to catch a little fuzzy toy that was spun around by a string.

  A caracal (above) can also leap over 9 feet into the air. The caracal wins the beauty pageant and ties in the high jump but the serval is the better hunter.  Both cats are relatively small and weigh up to 18kg.

  The serval has the biggest ears of any cat and the best hearing.  It also has the longest legs in proportion to its body.  Not to mention that it has black stripes that resemble those of a tiger.  Its long legs let it snatch rodents down tunnels and its curved claws let it hook fish right out of the water.

   It is said that when a serval pounces at prey it makes a successful kill 50 percent of the time.  In the video above it looks like it grabbed the toy 2 out of 3 times.  A leap year success rate is 1 out of every 4.

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Map of Our World
San Diego Zoo (Backstage Pass) , San Diego Zoo Safari Park (Cheetah Run)

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Post # 279