Since my Mom is so desperately far behind on the blog, I, Alyssa, am taking over the writing job today.Ahhh, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. One of the highlights of going to Ohio has always been going to the zoo. It is very big and the animals seem to be very happy there. As you can see in Picture No. 1, we are all very excited about the day ahead of us. (Including all the potential pictures. Yay...)
The first thing we did after renting a stroller for the coolers, purses, etc., was head over to the Asian area to see the baby elephant. Usually there is a very long wait to see him because of the certain viewing hours, but we timed it perfectly (my idea to go at that time :)) and had no wait at all. He was absolutely adorable, and I begged to keep him as a pet (as you may have guessed, request denied). He would follow his mother around and would copy everything she did. He was precious!
Next we went through the rest of the Asian area and saw a whole bunch of neat animals including Sun Bears, Red Pandas, Tigers, bats, and the illusive family members (see picture).
We also saw Fluffy, a reticulated Python, who happens to be the largest in the world that is in captivity. Of course the boys and Brianna got a kick out of that, but the rest of us preferred to hang back to observe his, um, beauty?
After that we saw the lions before heading back into the main area. There, we saw flamingos, which according to Elizabeth, do not smell very delightful. Even though is Elizabeth is correct, the flamingos were actually pretty interesting to observe. They kneel like us, but when they kneel, their legs come forward instead of bending back!
There I am with a picture of Fluffy's girlfriend. Or cousin. Or parent. Or aunt. Or.......
Do you get the point yet?
Next came the Aquarium portion of the field trip. For the first part, we waited in a line and then got to pet creatures you would find in tidepools such as hermit crabs, pencil urchins, chocolate chip starfish, and conch shells. They all had really interesting textures, and I was wholeheartedly grateful they didn't have the pokey and painful urchins there. :)
Second came the fish room! YAY! We were on a roll with timing today, because when we walked in, we only had to wait a few minutes before the diver went in the tank to feed the fish. Man, those fish can be feisty when it comes to food! They would charge at each other and try to steal food from their friends. That is the kind of friendship that needs counseling, if you ask me.
There are Ryan, Brianna, and Elizabeth, guarding their viewing spots for the fish feeding.
Here is the diver feeding the ravenous and highly territorial and dangerous tropical fish. It was a nail biter all right.
After the fish room, we went to see the manatees. I have always loved the manatees for some reason. They are such (in my opinion) beautiful creatures, and I hate to see the scars from motor boats on their backs and tails. It breaks my heart to hear about these gentle, defenseless creatures getting hurt and killed. The manatees at that particular zoo have been saved from injury, and some of them get released back into the wild. Once we were done with the manatees, we sat outside for a delectable picnic lunch of...... Sandwiches! But if we ate, we were greatly rewarded with Hershey's Chocolate Bars. YUM!
Us and the totally real (o.k., not totally real) manatees.
Since we had to get Elizabeth and Thomas home soon after lunch, we zipped over to the other side of the park to see..... The Primates! The gorillas were (as always) entertaining and pretty cute. But what really caught the attention of the people, were the Bonobos! They would go right up against the glass and make faces at you! One would slap the glass when a kid pressed their hand up against it, like it was giving you a high five! Another bonobo was carrying her little baby (it was seriously SO tiny) around as if she were showing off! Then she would sit by the glass so everyone would get their turn to see her little sweetheart.
For some reason, the statue of the Humboldt penguin was very fascinating, so here are the pictures of everyone posing next to "Pepe".
After the Primates, Grammy treated us all to Dippin' Dots Ice Cream before we had to say goodbye to cousins for who knows how long. The ice cream was very good, but it was sad to say goodbye to Thomas and Elizabeth. I really got to know them on this trip, and Elizabeth had finally started to open up to me, but then we left Ohio. It was a good experience though, all the same.
After Grammy left with the cousins, we stayed for a bit longer so we could see the Australia area, and go to the gift store. One of the highlights of that was that when we were looking at the Lorikeets, some lady gave me some food for them for free. But out of the generosity of my heart, I shared.
After we were done seeing the koalas and kangaroos, we headed over to the gift shop where Mom bought us all necklaces. Ryan has a bear paw that is a mood necklace, Brianna has a butterfly mood necklace, and I have a silver sea turtle that has blue jewels for the shell.
After that it was time to say goodbye to the zoo. We had had a wonderful time, and had made lots of memories. I can hardly wait till next time!
Peace!
Alyssa
