July 8th, 2009: Like a zoo

Hi guys! Scott was right and I did demand red wine and ice cream!

Red wine Ice Cream

:D  The ice cream was Jeni’s Bourbon Buttered Pecan and it was delish although I did feel it was lacking slightly and could have used a bit more umph. No idea what could have remedied that though.

Wednesday it was up bright and early to hit the zoo!  We had oats for breakfast.

Coffee Coffee for some wakeup fuel.

Oats and OJ

Basic oats with blueberries.  I wasn’t feeling the mix -ins nor was I feeling a bigger portion.  I stuck to the regular regular and some OJ on the side.

There were a lot of rules posted about what you can and can’t bring into the zoo in terms of food and drinks.  They said one bottle per person and one individual snack serving.  And that bags were checked over.  I originally was going to wear my CamelBak and have that stuffed with my essentials (wallet, cell, etc.) but since they were checking bags and we were only allowed to bring in one bottle of water per person I figured my CamelBak wasn’t going to fly.

Wrong. I should have brought it because they didn’t check bags or pockets or anything.  And there were people walking around with huge coolers on wheels. Lesson learned!

Going to the zoo was a big deal to me both morally and emotionally.  Normally I stay away from zoos because animals taken out of their natural environments and put in cages for people to gawk at is not something that sits well with me.  Yet I know some animals are still in existence only because they live in a zoo because their natural habitat is being destroyed by us butthead humans.  I wrestled with going to the zoo for a long time.  Since we live in the same county as the zoo, as residents we get 1/2 price admission on Wednesdays. Because of that and because Columbus Zoo is rated the number 1 zoo in the country (sorry San Diego, your time is over!), I thought that maybe the experience would be better than my previous zoo encounters.  You will not ever find me at a place like Seaworld though. Taking animals out of their environment AND having them perform stupid tricks for our enjoyment is not my idea of a good time.

We went and spent all day there.  I saw things that made me terribly sad.  I saw things that made me angry and annoyed.  And I saw things that I’ve never seen before. My patience and tolerance for people in my personal space was tested.

We walked around for a long time before stopping for lunch.  It was going on 2pm when we called for break time.  We walked all over the park checking out the different eating stops and none of them had healthy options.  Not one.  That deserves it’s own post. ;)

Thankfully I packed us food and we decided to just head back to the car and eat. We popped the trunk and sat in that with our feet propped on the cooler which was sitting on the ground.  We got strange looks from people who were leaving or going to their cars but whatever, I was happily stuffing my face!

Sadly I didn’t get any pictures of lunch! We were so hungry and thirsty by this point, eating was first on my mind.  But I can say that we had exactly the same thing we had when we went hiking, minus the vegan nuggets.  We both had salads with homemade dressing, cantaloupe, and purple slaw and water.  We did bring water in the zoo but both of us were being conservative with it.  We didn’t want to go through it too quickly and I didn’t feel like running to the bathroom every five minutes.

After lunch we went back in to see the other half of the zoo.  We brought two water bottles in with us and drank a little more liberally.  I was starting to get a wee headache by the end only because I didn’t take in enough water.

Even though we have a ton, no pictures of animals because posting pics of animals in cages makes me feel icky.  Instead here’s us!

Scott and I What bothered me even more than the animals was other people’s behavior.  I got to witness:

Several people make comments like, “Oh if only I had a gun right now….” or “Great target!”

People, mostly men, talking to the animals saying asshole things like, “Hi Mr. Alligator! You would make a great pair of boots and a belt!”

People encouraging their children to bang on the glass, make animals noises at the animals (like howling at wolves), and chase the geese and ducks walking around the park.

Then I had the great pleasure of witnessing a man start dancing around and making noises like a monkey when the male gorilla (who weights close to 400lbs) came by the glass. It was at this point I realized that some of us haven’t evolved at all.  It was indeed a zoo of ridiculous human behavior. People watching at the zoo just screams sociology or psychology thesis.

We rocked the zoo until we couldn’t any longer.  Plus we had to get home to feed and take care of Rocks.

Us It was the end of the day and when we got home it was going on close to 7pm.  Both of us were just plain exhausted!  Except for a few restroom breaks and eating lunch, we were walking around the entire time.  And the only extra money we spent was $2 for a boat ride that wasn’t anything to write home about.  I thought it might give us a different and better view of some of the animals but not really.  And it was only about 4 minutes long.

After we got home, Scott said he was hungry and we discussed options for takeout.  He couldn’t make up his mind about what he wanted and I finally stomped my foot and sent him to the shower while I put something together.

Shrimp enchiladasI had leftover shrimp enchilada mix from when we had those last.  So I pulled out some corn tortillas from WF and made a sort of “lasagna” style dish with alternating layers of the mix and tortillas.  Poured some salsa on top and called it done.  The full view pictures didn’t come out!

We watched TV and then before 10pm I was crawling upstairs to bed.  I crashed out immediately!

5 thoughts on “July 8th, 2009: Like a zoo

  1. Yay – another zoo hater! We recently had a measure here in Portland on the ballot about giving more funding to the elephant exhibit at our local zoo. My friends got mad at me when I said I wasn’t voting for it – it sparked a very interesting conversation and at the end, they said they wouldn’t vote for it either! I don’t think they have ANY “educational” merit – schools will have no trouble finding another place to take their students on field trips.
    2nd Yay – good for you for eating at home instead of takeout! Why waste money on eating out when you’re not even sure if you’re going to enjoy it?

  2. You know – I’ve never really thought of the zoo like that, but you are totally right! But I’m glad you braved it today, at least you and the hubs got to hang out! :)

  3. That sounds like a great ice cream flavor! Ick, that’s so upsetting about people’s comments at the zoo. It makes me sad that people would think those things, let alone say them. And I hate when parents allow their kids to run rampant and misbehave (the banging on the glass, bothering the animals). :(

  4. I can’t stand it when I see people tease the animals that are caged up (even fish). And when I see parents encouraging their kids to behave that way, it really sets me off…

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