It's a Zoo Out there!!

Today was the day I have been waiting for. I hit the zoo before they were opened and grabbed myself a scooter. Good thing I did too. If I was sore after walking the fairly flat zoo in Alburquerque, they would have had to take me out in an ambulance after today.

Talk about hilly. Up and down and up and down. They do have shuttles if you want to go to the Polar Bear or Panda exhibit and save some of your battery. I can see why. I only did the shuttle once, because I was hungry and wanted to go to the other side, and top, of the park to eat. There is an area called the Treehouse, and a really nice sit down restaurant there. Albert's Restaurant. They had the best Flan I have ever had. If I had known that it was on the menu, I wouldn't have ordered anything else. Since I had a late lunch,I won't be eating dinner tonite. I also had breakfast at the Flamingo Cafe. (There is a running joke in our family about Flamingos).

One of the worst moments of the day was right at the beginning. Actually, the only black spot on the day. Right as you walk in is the Flamingo Pond, so naturally I headed there to take pictures. There was an egret that flew in and ate a baby duck. I wanted to hurl. I know its life, but really, don't they get fed enough by the humans? Other than that the rest of the day was so much fun. I have a sunburn on top of my sun burn from NM. That's my sun for the year as I am not usually one to hand out in the sun. I even garden in a sundial format, sticking to the shade as much as possible.

I got to see the wild animal show- complete with howling wolf. I hope I got it on video. I also finally got to see the Pandas late in the afternoon as it was always crowded. They were sleeping, but still cute. The Meerkats were hysterical. The chimps were all in a monkey puddle. One of the orangatangs had a burlap bag that she was hiding under. I got that on video too. If it wasn't for one nice lady who pulled me around the corner, I would never have known. A lot of people passed it by and it was just too cute. Almost like she was playing hide and seek or You can't see me!

I think I saw everything I wanted to, or at least did my best. The only place I didn't go to was the reptile house. I don't do snakes, lizards or bugs. I would love to come back again and do the wild animal park and sea world.

The zoo was so clean, the people, including the other guests, so nice. At Disney, people didn't care if you were in a scooter or wheelchair (I couldn't blieve the nasty comments) but not here. People went out of their way to open a door for me or move out of the way, not walk in front of me. I had complete strangers strike up conversations with me, and one young man who walked with me for awhile until our path's went different ways. He is from Ft. Lauderdale and has an interview at Sea World tomorrow along with a lot of swimming. I hope he makes it!

I was one of the last people out of the park. I didn't want to leave. This is definately on my return list and with Heather living only a couple of hours away, I can do that!

I am going to go through my gifts tonite and mail as many out as I can. I don't want to carry back stuff I don't need to an my suitcase is full enough as it is!