The Minnesota Zoo in May, 2015
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for May 17, 2015
It has now been three weeks since Blue came into our lives and we are a little surprised that he's not potty trained yet. He also chews on everything within eye sight that we haven't raised to higher grounds and bites all of us every chance he gets. If he wasn't so dang cute, we'd probably be re-thinking this whole new dog idea.
On Friday night, we gathered up the gang and headed to Paragon Theaters in Burnsville to see the instant classic, Pitch Perfect 2. OK. It probably won't be considered a classic. Actually, it was pretty lousy compared with the first one . Sure, we still liked grooving along with some favorite acapella renditions of beloved songs from the past, but the story and dialog were pretty weak vs the original. Aca-apalling!
So the movie may not have lived up to our expectations, but the chairs and theater were quite the pleasant surprise. We weren't aware we were getting the luxury lazboys until we got in there, but were pretty happy when we took off our shoes, socks, and outer-garments and really cozied up and made ourselves at home!
On Saturday, we were excited to have a visit from Krazy Kory and his lovely daughter, Harli. They decided to come to Minnesota to go to the zoo and we were happy to join them.
Krazy Kory also brought his dog, Buddy. Sunny has been pretty passive with Blue since they've been together, but Buddy was much more aggressive. Blue was undeterred, though, and just kept coming back at the much larger dog. This puppy's got bite.
We spent the day at the Minnesota Zoo visiting old friends like the Bald Eagle who has been here for a few years. Something happened to this guy's wing so he's no longer able to fly, but he still looks really majestic when he goes Spread Eagle! Kind of looks like me if I were a bird.
The bears were chilling in their pool tossing around a log like it was a little baseball bat. This guy started to look annoyed like he was ready to take his log and go home.
One of his friends was working with a trainer to get some treats. It was incredible to see up close how big these guys really are. I still think I could take one of them if we ever met up in the woods. I used to be a pretty good wrestler in high school and I'd just sweep his leg, take him to the ground, and then put him on his back. That's exactly how I'd do it.
This guy is called a takin and he just kept staring at me the whole time we were standing near him. I was kind of surprised that a creature that chose to live his life in a zoo like this would be so offended by someone coming up to take his picture. You'd think he would have stayed in the wilderness with that kind of an attitude.
I knew it was Saturday, but after seeing these guys I just couldn't resist yelling "Hump Day!" for the rest of the afternoon.
The zoo has a brand new carousel which Krazy Kory really seemed to like. I think Harli kind of liked it also.
Sheri and the boys were hung up at the bunny cages for quite awhile. They really like bunnies.
We had a chance to watch the wild dogs being fed. They called them wild dogs, but they sure looked like foxes to me. Now that I think about it, I really wish I would have stuck around to hear what they had to say.
They tried to claim this was a moose, but I'm no dummy. I know moose have big antlers on their head. This looks like some kind of big donkey to me.
We walked around the whole zoo all day and eventually started to get tired, so we sat down a lot. It's fun to look at sleeping animals while sitting down.
Several of the monkeys had little babies with them. I really hope they're careful with them sitting up in those trees all day.
I never realized porcupines were such party animals, but this guy looks like he just rolled out of a Grateful Dead concert.
Krazy Kory doesn't read very well, so it's fun to tell him that signs like these say "I'm very friendly. Please pet me."
I'm not sure how I'd feel if I was walking through the woods and suddenly saw a Minnesota Lynx looking back at me like this. I'd probably do the same thing I did at the zoo and exclaim "Here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!"
We watched these sun bears for quite awhile expecting one of these branches to break under their weight, but lucky for them they held firm. That would have sucked for them to fall down on top of one another. Would have made a pretty funny video, though.
All in all, I think Harli had a pretty good day.
To top it off, we took her on her first ride on a ski boat. It was a little to cold to take her skiing, though.
The water wasn't too cold for Krazy Kory and Avery to dive in and beat up on a buoy. That'll learn it.
Luke wanted nothing to do with swimming. He was much happier sitting on the boat and not catching fish.
We ended the night with a trip to TGI Fridays. I probably annoyed the waitress when I kept exclaiming "It's not Friday, it's Hump Day!!!" But then again, she didn't get a chance to see the camels at the zoo. She would have totally understood my feelings if she had.
