The Detroit Zoo: an Impromptu Family Excursion

Hey folks.

Kris and I decided it was time again to show the girls some of the cool stuff our state has to offer.  As things have been somewhat calming down around here following June's utter craziness, we figured we should do some summer touristy crap while the weather was good.  We left it up to the girls to pick a destination, and Alayna asked to go to a zoo (I forget what Abby came up with.)  So, early this morning, the Houghs piled into their trusty mini-van and drove down to the Detroit Zoo for a sunny day of gawking at animals.

Here's how the day went. . .

As we got farther south, Kris had me GPS a Dunkin Donuts - her all-time favorite business, which is sadly no longer available in the northern regions of our state, thanks to their replacement by Canada's Tim Horton's, which has been  dripping down from the border like maple syrup.

No pictures.

Coffee for adults, donuts for kids.

Abby, a donut she doesn't seem to know what to do with, and a scab-heavy, skinned knee.

Two hours in a van, ready for imprisoned animals. . .

The Aviary

The girls brought their cameras along to supplement our own photography, and I think I may have included one or two of their pictures in this post, but most of them were pretty terrible.

We started the day off with the girls' first choice:  penguins.

They have parts of the inside of this Antarctic exhibit fashioned like the inside of Capt. Shackleton's ship, with video monitors placed behind portholes, featuring squid and other deep-sea animals.

Underwater observatory tunnels

Alayna tries to take a picture of a seal (it didn't turn out well.)

Entering the ice caves. . .

This was a wall of ice that illustrated the various layers of the Antarctic surface

Back outside, already tired and complaining of the heat (as if these kids weren't born and raised in frickin' Florida. . .)

Planning our next move

A brief detour down a wooded path.

Next stop:  the amphibian exhibit

We had to navigate a series of interconnected viewing platforms across a pond of lily pads, and around this time I realized that my standard 18-55 camera lens wasn't working correctly, so for the most part I had to rely on my telephoto and 40 mm lenses, and my phone.  Hooray.

(I didn't kiss it.)

Leaving the amphibian zone. . . or whatever the hell it's called.

Recreating a picture Kris has from when she was five, posed in front of these very same camels (well, camels in this exact same spot, anyway - they're probably different camels.)

I think homeboy here was drunk. . .

Mandatory pose-in-front-of-the-fountain picture.

Taking another break in the shade

(She requested I take this picture.)

Apes - you can always count on them to do hilarious crap.  Like peeing in a tree.

Where are this kid's parents?

And here's this chick, who really needs a bra.

Flamingos, nearby the ape exhibit.

By late morning, the girls were both pretty hot and exhausted, so we bought them a couple floats to cool them off.

With that in their system, we made our way over to the giraffes.

They had some zebras in an adjoining plot, which didn't seem to get the attention the giraffes did.

There was a huge line for people wanting to feed the giraffes.  That, plus an overpriced fee for the food, kept us from doing this.

Call me crazy, but I don't think this is historically accurate at all.  Giraffes aren't necessarily desert animals, either.  Camels?  Sure, Detroit - throw some Egyptian crap in there, go nuts.  But giraffes?  I don't know.

Fun fact:  this 'Egyptian temple' they have here is built on the famous one dedicated to Ramses II (the Great), and all four of those statues are supposedly in his likeness.

Entering the winding, twisting labyrinth that is the Arctic Ring of Life, on a fool-hardy quest to see a Polar Bear.

After a half an hour and multiple attempts at various vantage points, we failed to spot the great white bear of the North. . . unless you count this statue right here.  This polar bear we did see, so we made damn sure we brought home proof of it.

Limping off our defeat in the Arctic, we headed over to a souvenir store to let the girls pick out something from the trip.  We generally give them each $20 to blow at places like this, and do our best to steer them in a direction that doesn't see them blow it on completely stupid shit (like more stuffed animals, for example.)  Alayna surprisingly landed on this hat, something she doesn't own at home.  She liked the color scheme, the fact it had animals on it and a visor to keep the sun out of her eyes, and a hole in the back 'for her ponytail.'

After the store, we made our way over to a cafeteria for some food.  The line was practically out the door, so while I waited in line to order us a few trays of food (it took about a half an hour), the girls took turns snapping pictures with their cameras. . .

No idea what's going on at this table.

A surprisingly pleasant picture of Alayna

THAT's more like it. . .

Kris straps on our backpack - and her Mom Pants - and prepares to continue on our epic Zoo venture.

Arriving at The Butterfly Exhibit, preparing to check out some winged spiders. . .  or whatever the hell butterflies are.

Butterfly guides

After the butterfly sanctuary, we walked through The Aviary, which the kids really had fun in. . .

These mini-flamingo things (not sure what they're called, so I'm going with this) were everywhere.

She was SUPER into this.

Following our trek through Butterfly and Bird country(ies), the girls wanted to check out the penguins one last time before we called it a day.

This dude was awesome.  He simply does not. give. a. f***.

Checking out the port holes of Shackleton's doomed vessel again. . .

Squids are frickin' weird.

Back in the seal tunnel

One of these two kids belong to us.  The other. . . does not.

KidCam

So after the penguin joint, we stopped off at the zoo entrance souvenir store and let Abby pick out her $20 worth of plunder (not surprisingly, she went with a Ty-brand stuffed animal, but at least it was something that would remind her of the trip - a penguin.)  Alayna spent ten minutes looking for something to blow her last $4 on, but couldn't.  We didn't want her to just blow it on candy or some over-priced junky trinket, so after awhile we had to forcibly remove her from the store.  From this last picture I took before we left the zoo, you can tell Alayna was really, really happy about having to save her money for later use.

This one's slightly better.

Racing up the winding bridge to the parking garage, across the street from the park entrance.

. . . and that's how the Hough's spent an impromptu day at the Detroit Zoo.

- Brian