Many of my friends can attest to the fact that I’m not a big fan of the concept of zoos… I mean, the poor animals are dragged from their natural environments and thrust into cages in cities thousands of miles from their homes. When you look at it that way, it sounds pretty horrible, doesn’t it? I realize that the zoo people try to give to give the animals a space that’s as similar to their native land as possible, but c’mon… a flamingo in Tennessee? A Bengal Tiger that lives just off of Nolensville Pike? Um, I don’t think so.
Even though I don’t necessarily like the idea of a zoo, I still love animals, and I guess you have to appreciate the fact that you can see giraffe, or an elephant, without going on an African safari. So, when one of my friends mentioned that she was interested in going to the zoo a couple weeks ago for her birthday, I was said ‘sure’ because a) it was her birthday (and you let people do what they want on their birthdays) and b) I love animals, and knew that if I wanted to come within a few feet of a flamingo, this was my chance.
After bruch at Mad Donna’s (which has fabulous brunch, but the star of the meal was the bloody mary bar - do it!), we headed down Nolensville Pike to the Nashville Zoo. We only had an hour and a half before the zoo closed, so we had to come up with a game plan (after a little tailgating - I mean c’mon - it was a birthday celebration!). At the top of my list were the big cats, and Ryan was pretty excited about the monkeys. Our maps in hand, we made our rounds and saw elephants, giraffes, a wild hog, meerkats, monkeys (although not as many as Ryan was hoping to see), TIGERS! (but no lions), a cougar, flamingos, snakes (ew!), a tarantula (ew!), fish, and some other amazing creatures.
My favorites were the tigers and giraffes, but all of the animals were amazing in their own ways. The giraffes, with their graceful strut, truly swept me off my feet (they are definitely the supermodels of the zoo). The tigers were purely majestic - they knew they ruled the place - and were beautiful (I couldn’t decide if I liked the Bengal or the white tiger better). The flamingos were gorgeous and weird. And their coloring is so ’80s - wild and beautiful. And neon.
The thing that really struck me what the fact that the colors and patterns of these animals exist purely in nature - God is quite an amzaing artist! It’s a quite moving experience to think about that while you’re walking around (or dodging children and/or mothers with strollers) the zoo on a lovely Spring day.
After the zoo, we went to Las Americas, which was just one more fabulous idea that we came up with that day. Their food is quite cheap, but SO so good. I had a couple of the house specialties - the pupusas, which you can beat at the price of around $2.50 each - and Ryan enjoyed some enchiladas. Oh, and the pupusas make for excellent lunch/leftovers.
What. A. Day. I’d highly recommened any and all of our Sunday funday activities.
Even though I don’t necessarily like the idea of a zoo, I still love animals, and I guess you have to appreciate the fact that you can see giraffe, or an elephant, without going on an African safari. So, when one of my friends mentioned that she was interested in going to the zoo a couple weeks ago for her birthday, I was said ‘sure’ because a) it was her birthday (and you let people do what they want on their birthdays) and b) I love animals, and knew that if I wanted to come within a few feet of a flamingo, this was my chance.
After bruch at Mad Donna’s (which has fabulous brunch, but the star of the meal was the bloody mary bar - do it!), we headed down Nolensville Pike to the Nashville Zoo. We only had an hour and a half before the zoo closed, so we had to come up with a game plan (after a little tailgating - I mean c’mon - it was a birthday celebration!). At the top of my list were the big cats, and Ryan was pretty excited about the monkeys. Our maps in hand, we made our rounds and saw elephants, giraffes, a wild hog, meerkats, monkeys (although not as many as Ryan was hoping to see), TIGERS! (but no lions), a cougar, flamingos, snakes (ew!), a tarantula (ew!), fish, and some other amazing creatures.
My favorites were the tigers and giraffes, but all of the animals were amazing in their own ways. The giraffes, with their graceful strut, truly swept me off my feet (they are definitely the supermodels of the zoo). The tigers were purely majestic - they knew they ruled the place - and were beautiful (I couldn’t decide if I liked the Bengal or the white tiger better). The flamingos were gorgeous and weird. And their coloring is so ’80s - wild and beautiful. And neon.
The thing that really struck me what the fact that the colors and patterns of these animals exist purely in nature - God is quite an amzaing artist! It’s a quite moving experience to think about that while you’re walking around (or dodging children and/or mothers with strollers) the zoo on a lovely Spring day.
After the zoo, we went to Las Americas, which was just one more fabulous idea that we came up with that day. Their food is quite cheap, but SO so good. I had a couple of the house specialties - the pupusas, which you can beat at the price of around $2.50 each - and Ryan enjoyed some enchiladas. Oh, and the pupusas make for excellent lunch/leftovers.
What. A. Day. I’d highly recommened any and all of our Sunday funday activities.
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