God Home: Fun and Exhaustion at the Zoo

Thursday my friend Jared came to town and we went to the Mesker Park Zoo…We went mostly for their Amazon Exhibit, it is relatively new…

Amazonia was by far my favorite part of the Zoo…the animals were SO colorful, and there was not all the mesh surrounding them…either their was just glass separating you or nothing and it fostered a feeling of connection with the animals…

I did not have to zoom to get this picture…we were literally that close…it was just hanging out finding some bugs…and didn’t seem to mind at all that we were right there…it was beautiful

I find it interesting that this is how birds sleep…I wonder if hiding their beaks and becoming that shape they are somehow protecting or camouflaging themselves?

I could have stayed in the shade with these ducks/geese? all day…there were like 25 of them and they did not move when we walked through…a few did hiss at us as we walked by them…I’m pretty sure they were saying “watch out jack, I gotta beak and ain’t afraid to use it”

This was by far my favorite little guy…had personality…the whole time we were walking up…it was just standing there on one leg…I found it funny…

This camel looked sad…most of the animals were desperately trying to keep in the shade…so had retreated to their little houses when possible…do camels really look like that? It looks abused…

This poor Siberian tiger had to be sweltering…the information said that they can survive in –50 degree weather and grow extra thick fur and fat layers…here it is in the 100 degree heat trying to take a nap…

After seeing the tiger…there was a pretty big hill to get to a plateau that then went into another BIG hill to get the African habitat which is my favorite place…I heart giraffes and zebras…Unfortunately we did not make it to the giraffes and zebras…

The zoo is extremely hilly and after having walked for 2hrs in the heat I was getting tired…going up hills was the worst…my hips would ache a little and I would run out of breath instantly…that last hill before the plateau did me in…I could not have taken one more step without falling down, and made it to the bench just in time…

Since starting chemo I have found my stamina is less than normal…yes, I am overweight and out of shape, but I now get winded just walking up the steps to my house from the car…it was really scary, and I did not like feeling so out of control of my body…I think I was close to passing out…thankfully Jared was super supportive and fine with leaving early…and luckily we were able to stop a very kind zoo worker on a golf cart and ask him to take us to the exit…

If you live close and would like a review of the zoo, I gotta say it was not that impressive…without the Amazonia exhibit I would have said it is a rip off…maybe because it was so hot and all the animals were hiding…but you know there just isn’t that great a selection of animals…lots of birds but no elephants or penguins…so this was a nice thing to do to spend some time together but I wouldn’t go more than once a summer…

After the zoo we went to Barnes and Noble for a little look around…this was a LARGE two story BandN and was a bit over stimulating…I like to peruse the bargain areas…in one I found a grow your own crop circle kit, that would be a good gift for someone who has everything…

Then before going home we went to Red Robin…it is new in Evansville and for years the only thing I’ve known of Red Robin was their commercials

“Red Robin…YUM!”

We decided to split a cheeseburger, fries and a strawberry banana smoothie…I can’t say it was the best burger I’ve ever had but it was pretty good and the fries were tasty, but…the star of the meal was the smoothie…it was DELIGHTFUL after a day spent in the sun…

it was a nice day spent with a good friend…AND my head did NOT get sunburned!

Tonight, I did a little scrapbooking…nothing too involved because I haven’t scrapbooked in over a year and a half…but my little nephew turned one June 20th and I didn’t want to be more than a month late on getting his one year pages to him…I started this tradition with his sister…every year (I missed last year for Kenz, I just wasn’t in a great place physically and emotionally and then BAM it is almost a year later, I will make up for it this year though!) I make a few pages and write a letter to them remembering funny things, telling them how great their parents are, and letting them know my dreams for them…The hope is that it is something they will look back at and will feel loved…

I’m excited how his pages turned out…simple, but still have some personality…unfortunately they live so far away I was only able to see him once this year so all the pictures I have are from that visit when he was 6 weeks old…I can’t wait to stick em’ in the mail!

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