Geezers have lived long enough to accumulate a lot of memories. So it is for me. Among these memories are recollections of visits to zoos. A number of those memories came up today since we did a "day cation" visit to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse. We enjoyed several leisure hours observing a wide array of animals and exhibits in simulated habitats from ocean to desert to mountains to plains and forests. Both domestic and wild animals were on display. And along with the animals was a plethora of the human species also roaming outside the cages. It is a wonderful zoo practically in our backyard and amazingly we had not been there in about 20 years. Our recollection was that we had brought our now 25 year old daughter there about 20 years ago.
My first zoo experience was in 1952 when my high school senior class took a trip to the Washington, D.C. Part or our Washington experience was a visit to the Rock Creek Zoo. I do not have any particular vivid memories except that it seemed like an enormous venue. Later in life I had heard how fabulous the London Zoo was and on a professional trip in 1974 I had a chance to tour the London Zoo and thought it was one of the greatest zoos in the world. In 1983 Nancy and I took a delayed honeymoon to London and I was determined that she should experience the London Zoo as well. We took the underground from our hotel to the zoo and spent an interesting day there. However, when we got ready to return we needed to walk the entire length of Regents Park to get to the underground station. By that time Nancy was limping but grimly soldiering on. To my dismay when we reached our hotel she removed here sneaker to display a bloody blisters on both feet. Needless to say I was devastated by my inconsiderate behavior. Rightly so, she reminds me of that day every time we visit a zoo.
Our day today at the zoo was appropriately long enough to satisfy our curiosities but short enough to avoid pain and suffering. We will need to go back in less than 20 years. And maybe we ought to try going to the Bronx Zoo some time when we are in the New York Metropolitan area and take along our now mature daughter and her husband.
Here are pictures of some of the zoo denizens I particularly appreciated.
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| Nancy The Penguin |
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| Spiral Horned Sheep - Native to Afghanistan |
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| Every Zoo Must Have Elephants |
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| Hot Day for the Penguins |
1 comment:
there is a beautiful zoo in Columbia, SC too.
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