A day at the zoo

The IHG summer party was held, well, a few months ago in the summer. =) These past few months have really slipped by quickly. It was a really fund day with my family. Due to a twist of fate, I was able to bring a few that rarely get to do fun things with me and my "regular" groupies.

This rattle snake was HUGE. I just kept thinking about Harry Potter and how I hope everyone around us was a Muggle. For those who know me, I have a very strong fear of snakes. While that is true in EVERY sense of the word, I also hold a bizarre fascination with them. So, a trip to the zoo would not be complete without a visit to the reptile house, even though the smell inside that building is so foul that long-term exposure would probably be toxic. Seriously, OPEN A WINDOW. They have a tropical atrium area where birds fly freely and their excuse is that the birds would fly out an open window. One word solution: SCREENS. It is quite possible that building hasn't been properly ventilated since I was a kid nearly four decades ago. Hopefully, the money they will now collect as a result of the recent election can help make my mandatory visit to the snake house less than a miserable experience in trying to hold my breath for an hour. Yes, I vote for the additional funding. Now let's just hope they use it responsibly.

This skeleton of a snake's head has been there creeping me out and fascinating me since I was a kid. Also of interest, though I didn't get a picture, is the Styrofoam board showing where various mounted bugs came from. I remember always wanting to move to Australia because that was the one foam piece that didn't have any bugs, at least as evidenced by their lack of colorful dots. I believe this snake head came from a python and they are showing how once you get inside their jaws, you probably aren't coming out. This alone prevents me from visiting 3/4 of the world as I don't want to get eaten whole by snakes the size of school buses. What? I saw the movie Anaconda.


Since my last visit to the zoo, they have taken out the hippopotamus building and added an old-fashioned carousel. Awesome. As you can see, even someone as big as I am could ride without fear of breaking the animals. This penguin didn't know what it was getting in for when it signed up as a carousel pole dancer, but I held on and tried to be gentle. =)

The zoo has two of these lion drinking fountains. When I was growing up, I think they only had one. It was always right outside the elephant house, which has been renovated to accommodate a bunch of monkeys and an ATM machine. Classy. The fountain still works, though. The elephants have moved to a very nice new facility that gave me quite a bit of hope regarding the (then) upcoming vote for more funding. There was a time when the zoo's management was highly criticized for the frequent deaths of many large animals (like the large polar bear, a giraffe and an elephant), and for shady business dealings regarding the construction bid process for the new entrance. Things look quite positive at the zoo and I'm quite pleased IHG moved their summer party there this year. It was nice as well, because the concentration of regular people vs IHG people was fairly well balanced throughout the day, even after they were supposed to be closed to the public.





Riding the train was included with our IHG party passes. The seats were far smaller than when I was a kid, but then again, I had more hair then as well. The kids also enjoyed playing on a large playground while we enjoyed a nice sit-down chat on a bench.



The kids enjoyed playing with this water fountain of sorts. It is a big black ball with the various continents carved into it like a globe. It would spin around until the continents were no longer visible. It is located right at the front of the zoo, which made for a very convenient meeting place when some of my family had to arrive later than the rest of us.




The white Crocodile was visiting during the IHG summer party. It has since moved on to another zoo. Apparently there are only 10 or so albino crocodiles in the whole world. The amount of water being moved in this video lead me to ask an attendant if it was a water filtration system, or if the croc was doing it all. The latter was true.