Day and Night at the Zoo

The kids and I had a play date planned with some friends of ours on Friday.  Actually, the friend was my daughter's but her Mom and I have become friends over the last year since our kids are so close in age.  We try and do play dates periodically although this summer has been crazy and we've managed to only do two since school let out.  I asked my daughter Norah what she wanted to do on our play date and she said, lets go to the Zoo.  I said, "really the zoo?" She gave me a very definitive "YES".  So I text my friend and asked if the Zoo sound like a good place to hang out.  Since we both have year memberships, she was all about it!  So the plans were set.

I love going to the Zoo, I love animals!  Although, I hadn't planned on spending both day and night at the Zoo on Friday.  Several weeks earlier, my husband and I made plans to do a "benefit" called Twilight at the Zoo.  It's the annual Zoo benefit to help raise money for the Zoo.  They have several live bands set up, food and adult beverages (wine and beer).  We went once before, a year before kids and had so much fun.  Every time we've planned to go since then, at least one of my children inevitably comes down with a virus and we have to cancel our plans. Fortunately, my son decided to have his "August bug" a week early!

The big attraction this year is the return of our beloved Elephants.  They've been transferred to another Zoo for the last couple of years so that our Zoo could build them a new habitat.  Not only did we get our "old elephants" back, but several new elephants joined the group!

The kids love the elephants and I must say they are pretty awesome looking animals.  We missed the elephants while they were away and the zoo was building their new home.  I keep thinking how sad that they are "endangered" and how despicable it is that people poach them for their ivory tusks.  I never get why someone wants an ivory tusk from an elephant as art work.  It's no less appealing than me losing a tooth and displaying it on my mantle.  How weird would that be?  I think my parents still have my baby teeth - you know the tooth-fairy just so happened to take the tooth from underneath my pillow and placed it under my Dad's, so he saved them.  True story!  So maybe I should make some "art" out of my baby-teeth.  Anyway,  I think the tusks look much better on the elephant than in someone's art gallery.  Much like I think people look much better with a full set of teeth when they smile.

My friend and I both have two kids.  The girls are the same age, but our boys are a year apart.  My little guy believe it or not is the one who is a year older.  Her son is much taller than my son!  The girls found this statue of an elephant and proceeded to climb up so that we could take a picture of them.

I had no idea that Friday was going to be a hot and humid day.  I dressed appropriately but man pushing around a double wide stroller with two kids in it averaging 70 pounds up hill was definitely exercise.  I don't feel as guilty now since I didn't exercise on the elliptical machine for 30 minutes!

As we were walking through the "Australian" area of the Zoo, we came upon some rabbits.  If you have been keeping up with my blog you'll remember that I have a "love-hate" relationship with rabbits.  I wasn't originally impressed with these rabbits as they lay in the shade.  I have rabbits all over my yard and when you see one rabbit you've seen a thousand.  What caught my eye was the "chest" on this rabbit.  I must admit that I was highly jealous that God bestowed upon this rabbit a more bountiful chest than what he afforded me.  Just another reason for me to hate rabbits!

It's funny how you go to the Zoo to see animals, yet the non-animal attractions are what the kids prefer to engage their attention.

My son was interested in the line of blue port-a-potties that were being set up for the evening festivities. Knowing there was going to be thousands of adults drinking beer and wine, listening to music - the Zoo was slick enough to make sure they had enough "restrooms" available.

As always, I forget to get money from my husband for when we have planned outside the home activities - my daughter and son wanted to go on the train at the Australian Adventures and I didn't know if they took credit cards since I had zilch for cash!  Fortunately, they did so we all got to ride the 2 minute $6.00 journey around the Australian Adventure without seeing much but a bunch of kangaroos lying down.  The train was well worth it because my son just enjoyed yelling out "all aboard!".

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly into an "outing" a child becomes hungry.  Especially those children that never eat.  So we took a short break and let the kids eat and then off we went to find the giraffes, bears and sea lions.

It was so warm outside that the bears with all their thick fur paced back and forth under a water fall to stay cool.  One of the bears was just lying in the falls catching all the water and chillin'.  Not a very good photo-op for this being that the bear was too far away (like they should be) but was also hiding behind some foliage making it so hard to capture the moment!  So we walked a few paces further and found a "sundial" bear who was very happy to humor me with a photo opportunity!

My favorite part of the Zoo is the Sea Lions and Seals.  I'm not sure I really know the difference between the two but I just find them amusing.  Today was no different.

This guy was so silly.  He walked himself up a set of stairs hung out in the jacuzzi portion of his habitat, did a little swimming in the jacuzzi and then slid himself down the back slide into the open waters.

He just made me laugh!  He wasn't the only sea creature in the exhibit, he had about 4-5 friends either sunning themselves or swimming around.  I can't visit the Zoo without visiting the sea lions, just wouldn't be a proper trip without saying hello!

We then made our way back to the front of the Zoo passing some old friends like the giraffes and called it a day at the Zoo.  Even though I wasn't really excited about going to the Zoo on Friday during the day, it was the right thing to do - that way I didn't feel so guilty going back to the Zoo 3 hours later with my husband to enjoy the adult festivities!

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The biggest event for the Zoo is its benefit called "Twilight at the Zoo".  It's a great event and has been going on for at least 15 years if not longer.  Someone came up with a fabulous idea of contracting "cover-bands" in many different musical genres to attract a wide range of people to visit and celebrate summer.  For a generous flat fee, you get to eat and drink all you wish and listen to music from 7pm to midnight and walk around the Zoo and enjoy nature.  We come to find out that 7 pm is the best time to be at the Zoo.  The animals are much more lively and entertaining than in the heat of the day!

We got to the Zoo early and were escorted to the back of the Zoo, a mysteriously hidden parking lot that allowed us to enter the Zoo by way of "Northern Trek" meaning I was right at my favorite place.  Where the Sea Lions were!  We got there about 20 minutes early so we had to wait in line.  While waiting my husband decided to take this lovely picture of me.  I'm not one for getting my picture taken, unless I'm doing something goofy and have had a few adult beverages to kind of loosen me up a bit.  I humored my husband anyway so he could take this picture!

We spent 20 minutes people watching while waiting for the "gates" to open.  We have come to the conclusion that we are the only 45 years old and under people that do not sport a tattoo, or bizarre body piercings.  We also noticed that there was a wide range of people from all walks of life and economical standings.  I thought that was really awesome because its nice to be at a place where everyone feels included.  Often times such events are only for the "rich"; so us middle of the road people were able to have some fun too!

Since we entered the Zoo at the Northern Trek we got to say hello to my favorite Zoo buddies, the Sea Lions.  After a busy afternoon of swimming around and entertaining kids all day long they were a little tired when we arrived.  This guy to the right was passed out, as was much of his suite mates!  I'm wondering if they partied much too much with the VIP guests that were invited to arrive an hour earlier then the rest of us.  Either that or they weren't much into the "band" playing near by.

The night was perfect, just cool enough to feel comfortable and not too sticky, yet warm enough to really appreciate the ice cold beer that was being served.

The food was pretty decent, it's hard to go wrong with fried finger foods.  Definitely not a place to visit if you have to follow a gluten free diet!

Our summers have been known to be quite intolerably hot these last several years.  Not sure if it's because I'm older now and the heat affects me more than when I was a "young'en" or if global warming is indeed a valid argument.  All I know is that the animals were very sluggish earlier in the day when I was at the Zoo with the kids.  In the evening, when the air seemed breezier and the sun was hoovering lower in the sky, the animals were much more animated.  Take for instance the tigers below.

The tiger in the background was sitting in a stream of water that was falling from the rocks behind him.

This tiger was swimming around in his wading pool.

Me

Jon

As mentioned earlier, I don't like to have my picture taken, unless I'm being goofy or if I've had enough spirits to lighten the moment!  I must admit, I wasn't goofy because of adult beverages, I was just being goofy because I was having a great evening with my hubby!  Although I'm a "one drink" wonder most of the time, for some reason, two beers didn't do much for me that night.  We did, however, have these super cool glasses from which we drank our Samuel Adams Summer Ale from.  They lit up in multicolors from the bottom of the glass.  It made us feel spooky while drinking our beers!


An event is not an event without a "Beatles" cover band being part of the entertainment.  The Zoo did not disappoint!

I must say though my favorite part of the evening was watching the elephants dance, and yes I did say dance, to the disco music playing near by.  My husband was able to capture this moment with his handy dandy Android phone!

 The rest of the night we pretty much walked around and enjoyed people watching, listening to "hair-bands" and various other "cover" bands as we made two complete laps around the Zoo.  We took the time to be silly taking silly pictures and just enjoying the time together alone.  When I say alone, I mean without two little ones bidding for our attention.

Me, offering the under-aged elephant a sip of beer!

Sharing my beer with the kangaroo.  Needed to fatten it up a little,
the kangaroo was way too skinny! 

Taking a rest on the turtle and felt I should be polite and offer
it a sip of my beer!

This picture is such a "Colleen" picture.  I had to share it!

I feel lucky that my best friend is my husband.  We have a lot of fun together.  It is so nice to have our kids at an age that they love babysitters and they let us have nights out like this every once in a while!

Thanks Jon for such a fun evening out once again!  Love ya!