Belated Birthday Recap


For my birthday, I decided that I wanted to go to the zoo. Perhaps it was inspiration from J & Rho, who knows. Hubby had taken the day off so that we could play tourist for the day. We headed to Como Park Zoo and Conservatory in St. Paul. Not only did we go because we thought we were living next to some lil' known treasure spot, but also because it was free. And yes people, free is good.


The day was mildly nippy compared to the beautiful weather we just had for Easter. Thank goodness the temps have been steadily rising- as more clothes shed from hibernation-tired bodies, the more I am convinced that I need a tan- LOL! FYI to those who are interested in a trip out here in the near future- the temps have been a comfortable 60s with gentle breezes. It dips into the 40s/50s in the evenings, but by late afternoons, it's reached the mid-70s. We're just having nice weather all around and it should continue well into mid-September. Okay...that's my plug!


We visited the conservatory first. Two words: breathtakingly beautiful. Okay, perhaps that's a bit too complimentary, but after having seen white snow everywhere for winter and now dead, sh*t-brown grass, any other color is pleasantly inviting to the senses. There was one particular garden room that I wanted to see. This pic on the website was pretty, but in-person, it was 10x moreso. Right when you walk in, you find yourself on a mini-terrace that overlooks a long rectangular pool with a fountain. A few steps down, you're literally enveloped by an entire room filled with flowers of every color. The fragrance, surprisingly, wasn't as overpowering as I would have assumed. In fact, for lack of a better adjective, it just smelled pretty. My favorites were the tulips. I still can't decide whether they're prettier closed or in bloom! There were bunches in yellows, reds, pinks, and purples...simply beautiful. There were so many other types of flowers as well, but those stood out the most. The other gardens weren't too impressive, although in the "plants from around the world" garden, we did find a calamansi tree from PI! The smell all but took me back to my parents' backyard where our very own calamansi tree towers above everything else. I had to take a couple of good whiffs before moving on.


From there, we headed outside to the zoo area. Compared to the San Francisco Zoo, this one was very small. One of the first things that we noticed as we began walking around was how empty the place was. Not empty in terms of people...empty in terms of animals. Where were they? We walked up to an outside exhibit and there was a sign that said something like, "The winters have been cold. Come visit us inside!" Wow. I had never given it much thought until that day that these poor animals would not be able to survive the MN winters. We went to all the "houses"- large cat, monkey, hoofed animals....ugh, the hoofed animal house. Can I just say "foul smelling?" The animals in question were the zebras and the giraffes. These poor animals' temporary homes were a basic white room with a large fencing perimeter (think Jurassic Park-like for the T-Rex), food on the floors, and feces everywhere. The stench was too much that hubby couldn't even take a foot inside the room for fear of yakking. You can't help but feel sorry for them. The rooms are bare and don't leave much walking space either. Poor things. One of cutest things that I saw and I totally wished I had taken a picture of was in the monkey house. There was a big group watching the chimpanzees doing their thing- swinging from the ropes, grooming themselves, and carrying their babies on their backs. There were some monkeys that walked right up to the glass partition and basically stared at the people staring at them. There were some lil' kids waving and knocking on the window (even though it clearly says not to knock on the windows). One of the little girls had simply placed her hand flat out on the window when one of the monkeys, about her size, came up and did the same. It was as if they were touching hands! It probably wasn't even a full-minute, and in all corniness, I think there was a "connection." It was the most adorable thing!


After spending time at the zoo (all one hour and a half!), we headed to Mall of America. It was a last minute decision to head to Underwater Adventures Aquarium. Hubby kept insisting, but I wasn't sure that the hiked up fee would be worth it. Honestly, it was okay. During the "walk" in the tunnel, there were tons of fish to gape at and stories that I found pretty interesting. For example, there's an exhibit that held the different species of fish and animals that could be found in the Mississippi River. Let's just say that the Mississippi ain't a place to go swimming...there's just way too many critters down under that won't make for a pleasant encounter. There was also a tidepool for the lil' kiddies to stick their hands and touch, but unlike the usual starfish or crabs, there were baby sharks, eels, and stingrays. After hearing all the how-to and don't-do directions, I have to admit that I was too chickensh*t to touch anything. I was hyping myself to get the sticker that says, "I touched a shark!", but couldn't do it. Oh well...those lil' 5 year-olds got more balls than I do!


When we were buying tickets to the Underwater Adventures, we got suckered into buying a Behind the Scenes tour as well. This was, I thought, very cool. We were taken to the fridge area where we got to see what gets fed what on what day and how much. Not that it's any interest to ya'll, but the food included other types of fish to live crickets to frozen mice. Ewww. Gave me the willies. We were taken to a lab where we were shown different specimens in formaldehyde filled jars, told how they do autopsies, and how they perform various tests on everything. Quite informational. The highlight was taking us above the water tanks where you could literally see the tunnel in which we just walked through. I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of seeing a shark that close, but we were told that they don't like to surface much. We did see other fish though and even got to throw in some cut up clams to feed them. For the extra $5.95, I thought it was cool to see a lot of the stuff that others normally wouldn't.


Lastly, and this is probably because we had just seen so much fish, we had dinner at Bubba Gumps. It was a nice way to celebrate my birthday, especially after having been pampered with a new haircut and color at the salon the day before.


Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes, egreetings, and phonecalls! I survived the day with only ONE April Fool's joke c/o my sister...and just for the record, she is NOT PREGNANT! LOL! Thanks to hubby for taking the day off and making the day special. Love and hugs to you all!