We got an early start today because the Beast kept nagging at me to get going and pick up Chewlee. Her girlfriend didn't end up spending the night because she wanted to spend more time with her father. I guess the parents are divorced but that's just a guess on my part.
So I picked up Chewlee around 8am and my sister, Cee at 8:30am. We were back at the house before 9am and out the door (after potty breaks, getting fresh coffee and grabbing our cameras). The drive to the Birmingham Zoo took us about an hour and a half...slightly less, I believe. We paid our pound of flesh and proceeded to attempt to make sense of the map (it was very confusing and we got lost a couple times by turning in the wrong direction).
I think that zoo has a lot of nerve charging us $10 each (Cee, the Beast and I got $5 off for Senior Citizen discounts from the normal $15 charge). It has to be the absolute worst zoo I have ever been to, trust me. Besides a lack of animals, they seemed to only have two of each except for the Red River boars, the elephants, the giraffes and zebra. We never did see any tigers although people said they were out when THEY got to their cages. Although they had apx. 10 elephants, the way that area was laid out, there was almost no way they could interact with each other with the exception of two of the African elephants. The only baby we saw was an orangutan baby that had to be under a year old and was clinging to it's mother like a boil.
But the lack of many species and the poor layout of their confines was just awful. They ARE doing a lot of construction to expand the various areas and, I hope, make their surroundings a bit more open. The birds were also poorly laid out and not a big variety, either. I felt bad for the Golden Eagles because their area was small. Deep but small. Many of the animals really couldn't be photographed with any kind of what the Beast calls a *significant* image. The glass or else the screening that comprised their cages saw to that. Quite a few were in areas so deep down from the windows that you could barely see the animals. I thought the whole thing was just awful.
After living in San Diego for almost six years and having a lifetime membership to the amazing zoo they have, it made this one seem like a roadside attraction. We are going to do some checking to see if they have a zoo in Chattanooga and try that one in the future. We know they have a good one in Atlanta but that's too long a drive for a day trip. BUT...at least we had good weather conditions today.
It was around 70 degrees and almost no wind. Chewlee had insisted on wearing shorts and her mother had checked the weather I think and told her they would probably be all right. It was. She was comfortable. Cee and I had on long sleeved tops (hers was a lightweight sweatshirt/sweater combination and I had on a light sweater. The Beast wore just a long sleeve cotton shirt so it worked out just fine. No heavy coats needed.
We left the zoo around 2:30pm, exhausted, because we were starving. They had lots of cafes and restaurants there but they were all closed for the season. They really missed a trick there because we heard a lot of people that were hungry and didn't think they would have to leave the zoo to get food. The zoo should have kept something open...just one would have done the trick...to keep the people there AND make some additional money for it. But we stopped at a restaurant after we left and had some really good fried chicken for our late lunch/early dinner. Chewlee ate chicken strips and fries then had some ice cream for dessert. Strawberry...her favorite!
They were making a big push for membership and/or sponsoring a zoo animal but it didn't look like they were attracting anyone for that honor. LOL! You know I am being sarcastic due to my disappointment, right? Chit...Brookfield Zoo in Illinois was 1000% better than this zoo over 50 years ago. Now it is more on a par with the San Diego zoo with all the expansion and changes that have been made.
They had ONE pair of lemurs. The ring-tailed ones. They were active, at least, but in a small glassed in cage with a skylight. It was one of the cages that had more depth than space. Awful, in my opinion. Just a big lack of variety all around.
You will have to wait until tomorrow for any pictures (I hope) since it's giving me a problem with posting any right now. No clue why it's *having difficulties* but I'm no tech so I have to wait and pray it will be fixed by then. At least I dropped them a note to tell them about what I was running into when I tried to insert a picture so they are alerted. I hope others have had the problem so I know it's on their end...LOL.
Chewlee is in bed already (since 8:30pm) and the Beast is going to drive her home after church. We hadn't originally planned on having her overnight but at least her mother had no objections. We were all just really tired when we got home and it was so much easier not to have to face that drive and I would have had to drive in the dark coming back home. That wasn't really the reason I kept her. I always enjoy having her and talking about this and that going on in her life. It helps me keep up with what she's doing (and thinking). I had gone to bed with her and fallen asleep but woke up for...the bathroom, of course. So I decided to go ahead and get my blog written for the night so that it won't be on my mind when I fall asleep. Most of the time, it will be on my mind and keeps me from deep sleep. Most of the time.
Love you all. Have a nice Sunday. If you are working on your Christmas shopping, try not to get trampled like some people did on Black Friday AND grey Thursday (MY term for it!). People can be nuts at times. I'll only have last minute shoppers to contend with since I won't be able to spend much so I reserve it for the kids. Makes me feel bad since I get gifts from the Princess and a few others but I can't really afford to get gifts for them, too. Between Mr. BAH Humbug and what he's spent of our limited funds...well, let's not go into that. Having a fixed income sucks. SAVE for your retirement. Save everything you can..even pocket change adds up and you never know what can happen. The Beast's sudden strokes derailed us and forced us into retirement much, much earlier than we ever thought would happen.
Be careful. Take care of your health and, for heaven's sake, CHOOSE to be happy. It really IS up to you. ***Hugs***
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