Slimey Kiss

So Angela's blog about going to the zoo got me thinking about my behind the scenes tour of the H* zoo with Emmi B*. Her husband, Chris, did some kind of research for the zoo and as a little thank you they offered a behind the scenes tour. He had to study so Emmi had someone she could invite. Emmi thought my boys would like the tour so she invited me. My boys would have loved it, but she ended up finding out that kids weren't allowed. She asked me if I still wanted to go and I said, "Heck ya!"

So our first stop was to the sea lions. The big old sea lion did some tricks with its trainer. Then the trainer told us we could get a high five, hug, or kiss from the sea lion. I thought, "I am tough. I like animals. They don't gross me out. I will get a kiss." I told Emmi and she offered to take a picture of me. I thought, "Oh, this will be a cool picture. I will smile pretty while the sea lion kisses me." Um, that didn't happen. As soon as the sea lion touched my cheek, I kind of flipped out. I remember it very well. My first reaction was to scream and jump away, but I kept thinking, "I have to smile pretty. I have to smile pretty!" This is what I really looked like...

Look at beautiful Emmi get her kiss. This is what I wanted to look like!

Our next stop was to the giraffes. This was my favorite. We went inside their exhibit. There was a fence between us though for which I felt much better about! We got to feed them and it was amazing to come face to face with a giraffe! Sooo neat! And they do have really long tongues - it wrapped around my hand.

We got to see the baby elephant, Bella, who died about a month after we saw her. So sad.

We made another stop to see the orangutans. We saw them in their cages and it was a little intimidating. As soon as we entered the room with them in their cages, the alpha male started throwing things around his cage. I am talking big things! He made a real big ruckus. The zoo keeper said that we were entering his territory and he wanted to make sure we knew that he was in charge. Got it! The other orangutans (the females) were friendly to us. They puckered their lips like they wanted to kiss us. One female spit water at us.

I love zoos. It was almost a weekly trip with my boys when we lived in H*. I will miss living so close to one.