Today Greg and I got up early. I made breakfast then we got ready and went to meet my Mom, Janie, and Pam in the parking lot of First Merit Bank on Sawmill Rd at 9:45am. We all piled in Janie’s rental car and headed to the Columbus Zoo. There was a big line of cars and school buses waiting to get in the zoo. Then a long line for the one extra ticket we needed and a line to get through the gate. After we got in we stood around and talked for awhile until Sandy came through the gate singing the donkey song and doing the funny hand motions beside her ears. We waited awhile longer for Janet to come through the gate then we were off to explore the zoo.
We saw bright pink flamingos standing on one leg with their long necks twisted around and their heads tucked into their backs sleeping. We saw lazy alligators that looked like flat tires laying in the grass. The group split up when we got to the reptile house because my Mom does not like to go in there. Mom, Janie, and Janet waited outside while Pam, Greg, and I went in to look at all of the creepy crawlies. There was a cute little brown tortoise walking around its enclosure and a big fat gecko stuck to the wall. Any type of turtle you could imagine was there. A neon green snake was curled up in a fake tree branch. The king cobra was sprawled out resting in the rocks. There was a python bigger around than my upper thigh. We saw a diamond back rattle snake taking a drink out of his swimming hole. There was a huge iguana with an under bite and then we were at the exit.
Next we went into a building with a huge tank of water holding the manatees munching romaine lettuce and a see turtle with a bad flipper and sting rays and other kinds of fish. Then we walked over to the aquarium to watch the fish and sharks in the huge reef tank. I stood really close to the tank where I could almost count the teeth on the shark except that it swam by way too fast.
Before we knew it we were walking up to the historic carousel and getting on board. Janie, Pam, and Sandy sat in one group and Greg, Mom, and I sat in another. Mom was sitting beside a little boy. She gave him a high five when the horses started to move. Later she asked him what his horse’s name was. He replied “it isn’t my horse”. My Mom said her’s was named “Bandit”.
The next area we came up to was Australia where we saw koalas sleeping in trees and a funny little prickly fella with a pointy nose. Then it was time to go into the kangaroo enclosure. After opening the gate the only thing between you and the kangaroos is a small rope. The kangaroos were all sleeping. I wondered out loud to my Mom and Greg if they gave them sedatives. They were pretty cute either way.
Then we walked past the lorikeet house and had to go inside. You could buy a cup of nectar for $2 to feed them but we didn’t do that. The birds would stop at nothing to get that nectar. About halfway through I found an abandoned nectar cup that still had some in it so I picked it up and found a hungry lorikeet. I lured him onto my arm with the sweet liquid but then when the fun was over I had a lot of trouble getting the bird to leave. Even after putting the nectar down it took quite a bit of coaxing to get the bird to climb off of my arm and onto a branch. Feed a lorikeet and you have a friend.
We stopped to get a snack and the lines were out of control. Greg and I shared an order of bacon cheese fries from Charlie’s and drank water from the fountain. Drinks were very expensive at the zoo!
The next area we went to was Africa where we saw a contemplative orangutan, a very large gorilla sitting on the cement wall of his enclosure looking eerily human and many other apes. We also saw an okapi, a very unusually looking animal.
The last exhibit we went to see was the polar bear. You could walk down below the polar bear habitat where the pool was and watch the bear swim in the pool. there were a bunch of fish in the pool that we decided were his food. When the bear was not swimming in the water if you looked up you could see the sky and it looked like the fish were swimming in the sky. It was very surreal.
After we were done at the zoo we went to Max & Erma’s to eat dinner. I had a BBQ bacon cheddar burger and it was huge! I even had the smaller option.
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