Monkeys Are Jerks

Back in the fall, we had gotten into a fun routine where we had some sort of outing every week. Then November hit, and what with NoNo, and sewing for Christmas, and all the cooking, our little outings kind of fell by the wayside. So we’ve been trying to revive them. Today we had our most expensive date yet—a trip to the zoo.

We’ve been going to this zoo (an hour’s drive away) for thirty years. For almost the first decade, when our kids were little, this lovely little zoo was free, and we went quite regularly. Thank goodness. Because it’s pretty pricy now. They started charging admission in 2003 and the cost has steadily increased. If I had young children now, we could not afford to go to the zoo. Even with our senior discount, it cost $18 each. I know you’re probably thinking that’s not too bad, but we can’t help remembering that it used to be free.

We got there right at 10:00, and as we were admiring the flamingos near the entrance, someone called my name. I turned around to see my sweet friend Darlene with her husband Dean and their little grandson:

I was so happy to see her. She travels a lot so it is hard to find a time to get together. We talked for a few minutes, but her grandson was getting restless so we parted ways.

Right after that I saw a large bird I was unfamiliar with:

It’s a Southern Screamer. I kind of wanted to hear it scream.

The zoo has rearranged and relocated several of their exhibits, so some animals are not where we are used to seeing them. The aviary where you can go feed the parakeets is closed for the winter, but we could see them from the outside.

Our first big thrill came in the reptile building, where the giant anaconda was on the move. First it lifted its head, then ever so slowly pulled its coils out of the water and reached higher and gradually pulled most of its body up onto a branch.

So fascinating to watch. The biggest part of that snake was bigger than my thigh!

Soon afterward we saw an alligator that clearly hadn’t moved for a while:

And then it was on to the African section. They have a big area that is normally shared by colobus monkeys and bongos, but when we first got there, it was empty. Then, as we were standing there, they released the monkeys:

Then, they let the bongos out of their barn, but there’s a mesh gate between the bongos and the larger area where the colobus are. And the gate stayed closed because:

One of the colobus monkeys was enraged by the presence of the bongos. He did everything in his power to intimidate and provoke the closest bongo. He kept climbing the gate and screaming at the bongo. The bongo noped it right back to the barn.

Which just proves again that monkeys are jerks. I have known quite a few monkeys, and every single one of them was a jerk, including our own pet monkey Bart that we had when I was a kid. And the pet monkeys at school that bit the toes off the pet mongooses, and also carried guinea pigs up into a tree and then dropped them on the ground. Or the monkeys on the farm next door when I was a teenager, constantly tormenting the pigs.

So anyway, we continued on to see other things, like cheetahs and lions:

Most of the herbivores were lounging around on the grass, including kudu, impala, and zebras.

Then we splashed out $5 to get three lettuce leaves to feed the giraffes:

That was fun. I didn’t get any good photos of the elephants because they were too far away. You used to be able to get a lot closer to them, but that is no longer true.

The last main area was the Amazon exhibit, which included howler monkeys (also jerks). And these adorable river otters:

Here’s a few of the other animals we saw:

Then we drove clear to the other side of Tyler to go to World Market because I’m almost out of chocolate sprinkles. But World Market apparently no longer carries them. Rats! When we got home, I looked on Amazon, and they do have the good Dutch sprinkles, but they cost more that $14 for one little box! Yikes. And there is no acceptable substitute.

I had a bunch of work to do on my computer this evening. Still feeling a little overwhelmed. Walter, meanwhile, filled out the application for the organization we interviewed with on Monday. Fourteen pages! So I need to block out at least a couple of hours to do mine tomorrow.

Joy Spark: My surprise encounter with my friend Darlene. It was so great to see her!

Parting Shot: