Seen the San Francisco Zoolights (362/366)

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
~ Edward Pola and George Wyle

Last year when Nick and I went to Chicago, one of the coolest things we got to experience was the Lincoln Park Zoolights – a beautiful display of twinkle lights strung about the zoo, making it (well of course, along with the snow) a winter wonderland.  There were also craft tables and other cool activities for the kids, plus hot apple cider, mulled wine, and other treats to help warm people up to brave the cold again to enjoy the decorations.  It was one of my favorite things of the trip.

When we learned that our San Francisco Zoo was starting a Zoolights event, we were so excited.  We had to go see it – in its inaugural year!

One of the things I love about Zoolights events is that it’s just a great time to be able to walk around, enjoy Christmas lights, and bask in that “Holiday Magic” feeling.  It really is great way to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.  When we arrived at the zoo, the sun was just beginning to set, so there was still a lot of daylight.  We couldn’t wait for the sun to go down and the for lights to begin to shine.

There was a whole schedule of events for the evening, including live entertainment at the main stage.

The decorations were so cute!

At the Lemur Cafe, Wally the penguin was doing a great job entertaining kids … and practicing his photobombing skills.  He was hilarious!

There was even a great choir performing, and we couldn’t resist our own photo opportunity with Wally.  I asked them all to do “something funny” and this was what happened.  I guess I should have given more direction …

Along with the lights being festive, some were just plain beautiful!

This being their first  year, there were some interesting choices for lighting – this little cabin in one section was highlighted, and the area was really cute – but when we got to the cabin, the exhibit inside wasn’t well lit – I think it featured SF Recology (working to reduce waste in San Francisco), which is great, but they could have done with a few “normal” lights inside so people could read about.  It really was cute, though.

We think this section was where the penguins and other water animals are, but it was pretty dark here too – the lights were nice though.

Another one of the issues they seemed to be having was that sometimes sets of lights would just go out – we didn’t know if the connections got loose during the day or what, but it was kind of funny.  It did give me a great opportunity to get two neat shots of one of the displays though – the neon animals were really cool, and sometimes those got lost in all the other lights.  The shots below are of the same exact display!

Another fun thing they had at Zoolights was free carousel rides.  We had to take advantage of that!

There were some other really cool light features also, like the main “Zoolights” sign – it was animated and cycled through several very neat displays.  And although like I said, they were having a few problems with sets going out intermittently, there really were some beautiful lights to see.

Overall, I think the San Francisco Zoo did a great job with their first year of Zoolights!  I can’t wait to see what they have next year.

Related Links:
SFZoo.org
SF Zoolights