JUNE 6th - MEMPHIS ZOO

Nathan was feeling a little stir crazy here with our Texas vacation trip still being a week away so, he decided that we needed to go to Memphis. I didn’t really care to drive an hour or so to get there since we were going to be driving many, many hours the very next weekend but, he cleverly won me over by saying we could eat at On the Border while we were there. I’m a sucker for that place and have repeatedly mentioned how I miss living 5 minutes from it. We couldn’t really figure out what else to do besides go to the mall. I wanted to go to the botanical gardens but purely to take pictures of the kids surrounded by the beautiful scenery. That would have been a bore for everyone else though. Museums…ehhh. The zoo was our next option. I think we go once every 2 years or so. The kids like going and there usually are flowers and pretty landscaping all around so, we surprised them and showed up in the parking lot much to their amazement.

The local folk here insisted that we go to the Memphis Zoo because it was so amazing and far better than the Nashville Zoo. For some reason I just can’t stand going to the zoo. Maybe it’s because you wander around for miles, breathe the stench of numerous animals’ bodily projectiles, look your hardest for the best animals that are no where in sight, and sweat so badly that you begin to think that stench may actually be coming from your own body. They are just dirty animals trapped in captivity…What’s the big deal? Maybe it's just me, but I don't get the appeal. Even though the kids only care to look at each exhibit for 5-10 seconds, they really do enjoy it. And, afterall, that’s what it’s all about.

I pretty much spent the whole time a few steps behind everyone so I could play paparazzi. I think I took about 250 pictures. Maybe that’s why my camera battery that I fully charged the night before was halfway gone in just a couple of hours. I think I may have been bordering on obsessive. I guess I just really enjoy it and want to capture the best photos I can so, I try to take plenty of extras just in case. Sorry for the large amount of photos here, but this was minimal compared to how many I took. As boring as it may be to me, there are actually many pretty things to see at the zoo.

This was nothing compared to the Fort Worth Zoo. We walked through the whole place in maybe 45 minutes. I was getting really mad that we paid $40 for nothing special. No lions, no bears, no “oh my”. While the kids were playing on the playground we realized that we skipped a couple of sections. We jaunted another 45 minutes backtracking on what we didn’t see before. We found the lions…At least the female ones hiding under a rock. No impressive Mufasa Lion King like you expect to see. We found the bears…One polar bear and one black bear far in a corner. The hippo tank…Empty. Nearly every outdoor animal pond…Floating trash everywhere. They had this fountain area with water surrounding it that a handful of kids were swimming in with their clothes on…Disgusting and slightly disturbing at the same time. I will say that it was only about 80 degrees and Nathan and I were both wearing jeans with no complaints…And that was a pleasant surprise.

We hit my beloved On the Border, a couple of stores at the mall, and the carousel that we so conveniently parked right in front of, and left on our merry way back to Jackson. We are having to constantly remind ourselves that the entertainment, shopping, dining, etc. that we are use to in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and what the people here are use to are on much different levels…And always will be. Granted, we have not made it to Nashville or the Smokey Mountains yet, but so far, everything is definitely bigger and better in Texas.