On The Road-The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Hello to all my Alabama friends,

Dodie and Lori (another cousin) and I are going to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. According to USA Travel Guide, the Columbus Zoo is the best zoo in the United States. As you can see, I am buckled up and ready to go. What an adventure this will be!

We had to park pretty far away from the entrance gates; the Columbus Zoo is HUGE!  Andrew was at the bus stop helping people to get to the front gate. He let Dodie take my picture with him. He had never heard of me before!

We got closer to gates and I got really excited. There was the famous Jack Hanna. Jack has been on The Letterman Show, Good Morning America and the Oprah Winfrey Show. He talks about conservation-that means protecting endangered animals. The Columbus Zoo protects many different animals. I got my picture taken with Jack. He's a funny guy.

We headed to the African Forest area. Dodie remembers when Colo was born in 1956 (Dodie can barely remember though because she was so very young.) Colo was the first lowland gorilla born in captivity (that means in a zoo).  Here is a statue of Colo with me in the picture.

All of  the lowland gorillas at the Columbus Zoo are related to Colo and her mate, Mac. If you look carefully into the background, you can see a lowland gorilla. We saw several baby gorillas too, but they were too active to get a good picture.

The next endangered species we saw was an okapi. I thought it looked like a mixture of a horse, zebra and donkey. What do you think?

We headed to the aquarium.  The Columbus Zoo helps injured manatees. The Zoo gives the manatees a safe place to live while they recuperate from injuries or illness. They are then taken back to the wild. If you look really closely, you can see a manatee swimming in the background right behind me. I really like the aquarium. Dodie really likes it too because they have a coral reef. It reminds her of the Bahamas.

We were really tired, so we headed back to the front of the park to get to the car.  Dodie and Lori wanted an ice cream cone. There was a Velvet Ice Cream store. Velvet Ice Cream has been made in Utica, Ohio since 1914. It was good, and the flavor was Buckeye-more about this "Buckeye" business later. It is more than curious.

On the way back to Upper Arlington, we stopped in Powell to see Phoebe's other cousin, Peggy. Here is a picture of Lori, me and Peggy.

We got home about 4:00. We were really tired. I can't wait to see what kind of adventure we go on tomorrow.  Dodie is helping me learn some fun facts about Ohio. I'll share them with you soon.

Your friend,
Flat Stanley