Because Eric's in between projects at the house right now, he was willing to spend the day with me and the kids today. (Otherwise, it's tough to pull him away!) It was supposed to be beautiful day today, so we narrowed it down to either the Zoo or Kings Island. Audrey wanted to go to KI, Conner to the zoo. I made the deciding vote on zoo just because we've spent a lot of time recently at KI and Eric hadn't been to the zoo in a while.
We drove the Jeep (always a fun ride) and made it to the zoo around 12:30. After eating lunch (which I'd packed), we headed off to find the snakes (Audrey's new favorite) and the new Komodo dragon exhibit (Eric's choice). We passed by a couple of zoo workers holding some sort of rainbow boa constrictor - Conner and Aud were more than happy to pet it. Closer to the reptile house there were three more workers holding various sizes of snakes. The smaller one (another type of rainbow constrictor) was being passed around the crowd of kids surrounding it. It was at this point that I realized that I didn't have a camera with me! I hardly ever have my digital camera because my cell phone takes pretty good pictures.... but I didn't even have my phone with me today! I must've left it in the Flex at home. Of course.
Anyway, Conner got his turn to have the snake draped over his shoulders and loved it... Audrey, despite her affinity for snakes, wasn't going for it.
The next worker had another type of constrictor that was bigger. Instead of one person holding it, Eric, Audrey, and Conner all sat down on a bench where she laid it on their laps. I'm not much of a snake person, so I declined their invitation to sit with them. Again, it would've been a great time to have a camera!
On to snake #3. This was the largest constrictor - the worker said it was 42 pounds. We chatted with him (the worker, not the snake) for a few minutes, then Eric asked if he could hold it. The guy said sure and draped it over his shoulders. (Which would've made perfect camera time #3!) Several people were unsure about having a snake so close (one girl absolutely freaked out when her kid got close enough to touch) but the worker was saying that they'd never have anything out there that could injure anyone. Said that they're basically like a golden retriever with scales.
We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering around like normal. The komodo dragon was pretty neat - Eric was amazed to find out that it eats up to 80% of its body weight at every meal (so at a max of 175 lbs, that's 140 lbs per meal!). We didn't make it around to the side of the zoo with the bears and manatees, but did see the giraffes and elephants and ride the train.
It was a great afternoon! I just wish I would've remembered a camera. :(
No comments:
Post a Comment