Today, we went to the North Carolina Zoological Park, Asheboro’s claim to fame (besides Brian, of course!) It was hot as fire (a nice southern expression I heard about 50 zillion times this weekend), and it’s not a typical “zoo” per say – it’s more like a wildlife reserve. But we saw the animals on the list. Thank goodness for the stroller.
Melanie had a blast. Grammy and Poppy went with us, and Danielle – better known by Melanie as Daniel (she couldn’t quite get the name right) – one of Brian’s second cousins (don’t even get me started on the sheer numbers of the 2nd cousins – remember that he has 42 firsts – the seconds are the rest of the state of North Carolina, I think!). Anyway, we saw lions. Giraffes. Chimpanzees. Bagrillas. (aka – Gorillas.) Rhinosaurs. (aka – Rhinoceros.) Snakes. Assorted other monkeys and birds. And zebras. Our favorites were the elephants.
The elephants were huge – and dirty! I don’t know if they had been rolling around in the dirt or what, but they were nasty clay colored things – on top of their brownish gray bodies. There were 3 that we could see at the time, and it was seriously hot out there. There was a little pond – I say little pond, because it kind of looked like a puddle from where we were – out in the middle of the field, but none of the elephants were anywhere near there. We were talking to Melanie about how the elephants went out there to cool off in the water, and she was talking to us about how it was like a bathtub for them. Right on. Well, don’t you know that the biggest of the 3 of them walked over there and stuck his trunk in that water and started spraying himself off – it was the coolest thing!! There was water everywhere (they were a good ways away from us) – but he took a little shower out there. We were figuring that the water was pretty shallow, because he was up to about his elephant ankles in it, so we figured it was a showering facility. We were wrong. All of a sudden, he turned with his butt towards us and backed up into the water – all the way in – and laid down in the “puddle”. Let me tell you – any water deep enough to cover up an entire elephant is not a puddle. He went all the way into the water – and then just stuck his trunk out to breathe. It was really, really cool. One of those moments I wish I had had a video camera, although I did do some continuous shots with the still camera and got like a little slide show thing happening. It was one of my favorite things about the zoo.
The other part we thought was really cool was when we went to the chimpanzee display. It’s all outdoors, but they have these little caves and tunnels that you walk in that have like observation glass in them. We went in with Melanie, and got her out of the stroller, so she could stand next to the glass to watch the chimps. The trainer was there in the tunnel sitting on the bench, answering our questions and stuff. While we were talking about random things about the chimps, who kept walking by the glass, but not really stopping, a HUGE female chimp walked up, and the guide said that she wouldn’t stop at the glass either, because she was the alpha female, and had no patience for people. I was asking questions about her (because I’m nosy, I guess) – found out she’s 32 – same age as me – and is so well groomed because she’s the boss :-D I said she looks better than I do and we’re the same age – the guide said that he didn’t know about “better”, but she’d give me a run for my money. I didn’t quite know how to take that one! Don’t you know that she stopped right in front of Melanie and just sat there looking at her. We got the greatest pictures of them – it was soooo cool! The guide was totally amazed, because he said as the highest ranking female in the clan, she hardly ever “graced humans with her presence.” She sat there with Melanie for about 10 minutes. Then, a little male monkey came up, and he was posing and stuff there by Mel too…until he got frustrated with something – I’m not sure what – and whapped on the glass really hard right at her stomach, then stalked off. Everyone around us – me included – jumped about 10 feet. Not Melanie. She turns around with this huge grin on her face and says, “Mommy, he got my tummy!” Then of course, more oohs and ahhs from the gathering crowd who were all watching the little girl and the chimps.
We’ve got a diva. And I’m not sure how to break that habit. I think she thinks that she’s the star. The sad part is, she mostly is most of the time. Good grief.
We also got some time at the camp today. Melanie and Brian went out on a canoe, and had a great time. Played some soccer. Ran. Swang. Basically, got the lead out. It was fun to watch.
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