Columbus, OH- Friday, July 1, 2011

Columbus might seem like an odd choice for spending the first three nights of out vacation, but there really is a lot to do here. Actually, it might also seem odd that we bought two day passes to just one place, but that place is the Columbus Zoo, and its affiliated waterpark, so we have lots to keep us busy.

After a rather late breakfast (for us), the girls were excited to get to the Zoombezi Waterpark. It is adjacent to the zoo and filled with the kinds of things that they like to do. The temperature was in the high 80s today and it was sunny- a great day for the waterslides and pools. Julie, Anna, and Emma went down a couple of large waterslides together, including the “Tahitian Twister” which had them come down on a tube together. Emma was pleased that she was now tall enough for such rides. Emma, of course, also liked the large wave pool, which is always her favorite at this type of park. Anna also took her sister on a tube ride around the lazy river while Mom and Dad just watched. In fact, Dad just watched through most of the waterpark. He took pictures and video and lost count of the number of people that commented on his new “Angry Birds” t-shirt. We had a pizza for lunch before leaving the water park behind and starting to explore the zoo.

While we were waiting in line today, one woman compared the zoo to a small version of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. That comparison seems apt. There aren’t as many rides in Columbus, but there are a few. More directly, the Columbus Zoo is set up in themed areas, and Australia is supposed to look like Australia, Africa is supposed to resemble Africa, Asia is supposed to look like Asia, and so on. The exhibit spaces are quite amazingly put together. Of course, we were attracted to the zoo because of its association with Jack Hanna. Julie has always liked seeing him in his appearances on TV talk shows. He has been the “director emeritus” for some time here, and his face is seen on many of the signs and brochures for the zoo.

In the zoo itself, we started in the “Shores” area, where Emma’s favorite animal was one of the first that we saw—the flamingoes. She said, “It’s weird how they sleep,” because several of them were balanced on one leg. We were all enchanted by the manatees. They were quietly swimming around, with their big gentle faces coming quite close to us. They were mostly there from rescue operations, and at least one showed scars from being hit by a boat’s propeller. His name was Hamilton. Anna and Dad both thought the manatees were their favorites of the day. Emma ended up buying a stuffed manatee afterwards. In the aquarium, the girls waited in line for the touch tank, where they were able to feel the horseshoe crabs and other critters. When we went to the reptile house, they were also able to touch a rosy boa, a snake from California and Arizona. We found one of the keepers of the Humboldt penguins in the enclosure with them. The penguins were very cute, but she described them as quite temperamental and even nasty little critters.

From the Australia area we were able to walk into an enclosure with a mob of kangaroos, but they were all huddled under the trees trying to stay in the shade. We paid a little extra for a trip on a “Small World” style boat ride. There were only a few animals that we could see from the boat, but it was a shady ride, and we all appreciated getting off our feet in the relative coolness for a while.

In Asia and Africa, we also had some up-close encounters with orangutans and gorillas. They were quite close to the glass. Julie’s favorite animals might have been the flying foxes in Asia, which look like bats that are the size of monkeys. We sat and watched them for a while. We were surprised by the number of rabbits that are running free throughout the zoo. They’re like squirrels in some other places. One of them was even in with the mandrills.

Anastasia took over 200 pictures of the animals. We’ll have to delete a lot of them, but that’s more because of the camera than her. She actually has a really good eye, and what’s more, she’s a considerate photographer. She makes sure that the flash is turned off so that she doesn’t hurt the eyes of the animals and fish and also won’t get a glare off of the glass.

Around 6:00, we were all dragging ourselves, and we decided to call it a day. There was more of the zoo to explore, but we’ve got tomorrow too. We went back to the hotel, where the girls went in the pool. While they were swimming, we saw a hot air balloon fly right over the hotel. Julie called her friend Laura, who now works in Columbus , and plans to have coffee with her later tonight.