Houston Zoo

We took Haley to the Houston Zoo yesterday and, in spite of being exhausted from working two weeks of overnights without the proper time to readjust to human sleep times, illness, and the extreme heat and humidity, we had a good time.

We left a little later than I had planned, but that was ok. We arrived at the zoo at about 11:00 and were already feeling the heat as we were walking to the entrance. I had planned on spending the whole day there, but knew really quickly that we would have to append our schedule because of the unbearable heat.

As soon as we got through the entrance, we went to the air-conditioned Kipp Aquarium. That is one of my favorite parts of the zoo, and it is also my favorite part of Moody Gardens when we go to Galveston. I know psychologists have said that having an aquarium in your house will act as a calming factor if you are ever stressed-out, and I believe there is some validity to that. Probably the most interesting tank is the jellyfish that are lit up by the black light. We must have spent the most time in the aquarium in front of that tank.

The next place we visited was the Fischer Bird Garden. It is outside, and by the time we got through it, we were soaked with sweat. Probably the most interesting exhibit there was the bleeding heart dove and us trying to get it turned around to get a good picture of its bleeding heart.

Next, we walked down past the Cassowary and the Great Hornbill to see the hoofed animals. These incluse the Nyala Antelope, the giant Eland, Zebra, and the Warthogs. By the time we had gotten to the end of it, we were already looking for shady and breezy spots to cool off.

We then went through the John P. McGovern Children's Zoo, which also has a petting zoo, but all they had there were goats to pet. We saw the deer and the otter, the pelicans and the farm animals. But, most memorably, we saw the American Bald Eagle, which could have easily jumped on us and attacked us, according to one zoo visitor. We walked to the restrooms, which were heavily air-conditioned, and got a bit of relief from the heat for the moment.

Once we left the children's zoo and had paid $2.49 for a $0.35 bottle of water, we decided to walk through the Wortham World of Primates because there would be plenty of shade. I remember it being more memorable the last time we visited, but I think the heat caused us to bypass the exhibits to get to the next bit of air-conditioning.

After leaving the primates, we next decided to visit the reptiles and amphibians, since the heat would keep most of the outside animals in the shade sleeping, and it is air-conditioned. We spent a lot of time looking at the reptiles and amphibians, almost too much time since our party was mostly petrified of snakes. But, I suppose that since they are behind securely locked glass cages, there is a lot more boldness in our group. We stayed there until we were completely dry.

Now we decided to see the giraffes, one of our most anticipated stops. we decided to make this their last stop because the heat was too much for us. We walked behind the reptiles and amphibians to the giraffes and got some fabulous shots.

We did get to see a couple of meerkats before visiting the gift shop to gets Haley a souvenir of our visit.