Zoo Vids

The following are short 15 second videos of critters from our Toledo Zoo visit. (My camera can do 15 second shots with no sound recording. So far, that’s been quite sufficient for my needs.)


Meerkats at play. I love the one that falls over while leaning back.


A glow-in-the-dark jellyfish. (The conversion to YouTube means that it gets darker faster for some reason.)


Finding Nemo: a clown fish plays with an anemone.

Alas, I keep getting errors on my processing for the Butterflies video, so you folks are spared won’t get to see that one.

(It’s nearly 11am and judiang is still asleep! Just cuz we stayed up til after 2am to watch some shooting stars…)

We’re going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo!

Yesterday morning, I got up at 6:30 and then got judiang up at 7am. We were on the road by 7:30 am. Pretty good for a couple of girls on vacation at the Lake!

We had breakfast at a Bob Evans in Lima and managed to get to the Toledo Zoo by 10am (or so). The zoo opens then, so we were able to park close to the gate, which was nice. And we headed into the gift shop/bakery to wait for elsaf‘s arrival. Turns out she was waiting outside to meet us and we were waiting inside. Thank goodness for cell phones. Heh.

We had a pleasant time wandering around the zoo and looking at the critters. One of the first things we saw were the polar bears. We only got to see one mama & son playing, but that was enough to satisfy our polar bear curiosity.

We had lunch at the Carnivore Cafe – cheeseburgers all around. Judi didn’t get us a seat in the cages, but quite a few folks ate in the cages where the various carnivores were housed until 1992 when Toledo reformatted their zoo to the current design which gives the carnivores lots of space to roam.

We spent almost 7 hours at the zoo, wandering around, sitting when tired, eating when hungry. It was quite pleasant. They had a special on dragons (like the komodo dragon) and another special on butterflies (which cost $2, but got you up close & personal to butterflies). I’ll be posting a few little vids on YouTube from the zoo one of these days.

Before we left the zoo, we purchased some cute meerkat stuffed toys and I got a tagua nut carving of a heffalump (which looks like ivory, but is a nut).

Then Elsa followed my car to Packo’s at the Park, a second Tony Packo’s restaurant that’s pretty close to the zoo. We all had the traditional Tony Packo’s hot dog, and I had their chili mac as well. It was all good (but the famous pickles are far too salty for me). And best of all, when we gave Elsa her birthday present, the waitress asked whose birthday it was. We pointed to Elsa, so she gave her a $10 discount on her bill. Woot!

It turns out Elsa enjoyed the silk embroidered picture that we gave her. Which is good, cuz otherwise we were going to take it back and share it between the two of us. 😉 I think it would look good in my house! So happy pre-Birthday, Elsa!

And now some zoopix!

Giraffes & wildebeests and more
Giraffes & wildebeests and more

Little polar bear
Little polar bear

Bald eagle recovering from injuries
Bald eagle recovering from injuries

Birdies at my feet
Birdies at my feet

Hippo on the lookout
Hippo on the lookout

Heffalumps (but no woozles)
Heffalumps (but no woozles)

Why are rhinos grumpy? Smelling rhino butts while sleeping...
Why are rhinos grumpy? Smelling rhino butts while sleeping…

Scratch my meerkat belly!
Scratch my meerkat belly!

Fishy!
Fishy!

Turtles having sex?
Turtles having sex?

Pretty butterfly
Pretty butterfly

Butterfly from underneath
Butterfly from underneath

Elsa & Judi at the Toledo Zoo
Elsa & Judi at the Toledo Zoo

Gorillas in the midst
Gorillas in the midst

Elsa receives her birthday present early
Elsa receives her birthday present early

Packo's at the Park
Packo’s at the Park


All’s Fair in Love and Whatever…

judiang, as some of my friends list knows, is a City Gurl through & through. Her first time at the Lake, she wouldn’t get within 6 feet of the campfire. (Now she builds ’em.) She couldn’t tell horses from cows. (Well, OK, so we were driving by quickly and she just saw critters.) She couldn’t distinguish between types of manure. (Well, we’re still working on that – she now can identify skunk, at least.) So what was next on the “countrification” of Judi? The County Fair, of course.

I was delighted when I discovered that Judi’s latest visit would coincide with the Miami County Fair. I’ve attended the county fair since I was a kid, and I must admit, it hasn’t aged well. (It’s probably the same as when I was a kid, but as I was a kid then, my expectations were low already.) I went a couple of years ago and enjoyed the Fair food (my weakness), so it was time to go again.

The flag raising ceremony didn’t start until noon, so Judi and I had a leisure morning. I made us egg, ham & bagel sandwiches, as I mentioned in my last post, and eventually, we headed off to Troy for the fair. One of the first folks we met was a fellow running for sheriff who was dressed in some outlandish outfit to draw attention to himself. Judi, of course, had to get a photo. (Which I hope she’ll post in her entry.) She now thinks that politicians in Ohio dress up in period costume to get elected. I don’t wish to disavow her of that image, but, well, that just ain’t so. 😉

We checked out the horticulture building to see the ginormous (now a dictionary word, folks!) vegetables that folks in the county had grown. I have a couple of the biggies to show in my photos later. I then had to have a Fair taco and a lemon shake up to start off my experience. We then checked out other buildings – vendors, critters, etc. I won some canes (3 – and only wasted $4 doing it.) And I had to have some Fair fries. And then we checked out the art building where I discovered my little cousins got first place on the ceramics they’d painted for the Fair. Well done girls! (They’re young – one’s going into 2nd grade, the other into 6th!) Finally, I finished the food fest with an Elephant Ear and some sugar waffles (the waffles to go). And we had to return to the Vendors booth. Why? Well…

You see, elsaf‘s birthday is just around the corner. And Judi and I have been chatting about what to get her. And at the Vendor’s building, there was a very nice lady selling paintings. Only they weren’t paintings. They were embroidery. Really, really neat embroidery. We hemmed & hawed the first time there, but we really liked what we’d seen. And as we discussed it, we decided we wanted to buy one of the framed pieces for Elsa. After we were done at the fair, we returned to do just that. We found one that we thought would be perfect for her house, then managed to gather enough cash for the job. The lady remembered us and was thrilled that we’d returned. Her business is World Threads and is from New Carlisle, OH.

On our way home from the Lake, we stopped at Walmart for some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, then returned to the lake. Supper was leftover pizza for me and hot dogs for Judi (who’d eaten her leftover pizza the night before). A very pleasant day for both of us.

So here are some photos from Judi’s first county fair.


It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!


Judi’s standing next to the third place entry. I couldn’t get the first place entry and her in the same shot.


The best of the best produce in Miami County.


Awwww, sheeps in love!

I still have today’s adventures (well, now yesterday’s adventures) to post about, but after today’s adventures, I’m too exhausted to post about them. So I’ll do it tomorrow.