Dolls and Doll-related Items for Sale

Monday, August 14, 2023

Asian Lantern Festival, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo July 22nd 2023

This year I took Mingmei along with me. She posed with this creature guarding the entrance to the zoo, which traditionally is said to protect Chinese buildings. It's called a fu dog, among many other names. I also took a picture of the entrance by night.


Mingmei and I took turns in an oversized Adirondack chair.


Mingmei liked this lantern, because she looked like another doll.

She also wanted to pose with a blue flower, and a row of stars, suns and moons.



The large display in the lagoon this year was a dragon boat.

 

Of course, we saw some animals. Here is a snow leopard, a swan family, and elephants. My camera has a fantastic night setting.

We also saw some wolves this year! The wolf enclosure is attached to a log cabin, which holds a fish tank, some places to sit, and some information about the 1925 Nome Serum Run, featuring lead dogs Togo and Balto. Balto and his team have a Cleveland Zoo connection. The back of the log cabin faces the wolf enclosure, which has large clear windows. As we were there around dusk, the wolves were apparently coming out to move around. These are Mexican wolves, so they don't look as enormous as wolves from further north.

Once again there were several displays with light and movement. This group of butterflies and vines was part of an open tunnel.

Lastly, here's a picture of the vast difference between lantern displays by day, and by night. Of course, these umbrellas are also colored differently by night.



Mr. BTEG and I enjoyed it, although we will never go on a weekend again if we can help it!

8 comments:

  1. Dear Barb, it looks like you and Mingmei had so much fun. I love the big chair. It reminds me of the one that Lilly Tomlin used when she played Edith Ann on Laugh In.

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    1. It was really fun, Dorothy, and good exercise too! I am old enough to get that reference. ;)

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  2. Lovely photos Barb, looks well worth seeing. I can relate to the difference between the day and night shots of the umbrellas, they reminded me of the huge trees we saw in Singapore. That dragon boat looked fabulous too!
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. Thank you, Xanadu. It's become one of our favorite ways to get out of the house during the summer. Do you know what the trees in Singapore are called? They sound amazing. I always love seeing what the big lantern display in the lagoon is going to be. This one was not as big as some previous ones, but very well done.

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  3. Beautiful photos! Those umbrellas looked beautiful in daylight, but even prettier at night. I like the doll lantern too! It looks like a fun place to visit and I'm glad to hear that you had a fun time there.

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    1. Thank you! It's fun to see the difference between displays at night versus during the day. This year we only made one pass around the displays, so it was only at the front of the zoo that we got to see a lot of variations. We enjoy this so much that it has become a yearly event. We've been looking for as many ways to get out of the house on the weekends as possible this summer.

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  4. Wonderful journey, beautiful photos. I really liked the colorful lanterns. They are incredible.

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    1. Thank you! We love going to this every year. They always come up with beautiful designs.

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