They followed their new bouncing friend
OK, to holiday stuff. One of the things we always do is go to the local zoo's Wonderland of Lights. We used to do this after Christmas but since they were only open Thursdays through Sundays until the 23rd --- the 23rd was a Monday --- we had to go the 22nd. It was a rare-this-season cold day, actually below freezing. And we got started a little bit late, cutting out the time we might have spent in the learning center seeing that kids got to make craft projects or touch a sable skin or things like that.
There was at least a little snow left on the ground, come from the storm on Thursday or Friday that was actually enough to bother shoveling. This did mean that if the Arctic foxes were out we didn't have any hope of seeing them. We also didn't see the otters and if the snow leopards were out they weren't drawing any attention to themselves. In fact all the big cats were off hiding from their winter enclosure. Might have just been coincidence. In compensation, the lemurs were extremely active and putting on a good show of jumping around branches for everyone. Also there were at least a couple penguins out and about, although the exhibit lights weren't on and we couldn't see that they were doing anything interesting.
The most curious thing in the reptile-and-bird house was that the railings separating the public space from the exhibit space had police-style tape and 'WET PAINT' signs along it, but nobody was paying attention to this warning, including bunny_hugger who did not get any paint on her winter jacket by leaning against it. The railing itself looks like moulded plastic anyway, not fit for painting, and nothing felt wet. Maybe it was a bluff but if so, why such a bad one?
The lights were a pretty familiar bunch, and arrangements. I think the biggest change was that more of the Sensory Garden path was illuminated than in past years. And this led us to discovering they had a ``Corvid Corner'', a building where you could get up close and see ... probably a raven. Hard to tell after dark like that. But we and a couple of other people stood there a while, in silence, watching nothing particular happening until a very large shadow of a bird emerged from the shadows and perched atop a log, to general approval.
Though we were able to make two circuits of the zoo before the place closed we didn't feel like we had quite enough time. We were close, though. Also we didn't get through two circuits before the zoo closed; it's just, unlike past years, they didn't turn the music off right at 8:00 and the lights off five minutes later. We got a good ten or fifteen minutes before they turned off the music and park employees riding around in vehicles told us how to find the exit. We've been harder to chase out of the zoo before.
We're now getting to the end of the day at Kentucky Kingdom, sooner than we expected at least:
Bird flying through the elevated swing ride. I'll send that one to the county fair.
Back to Thunder Run for a late-afternoon ride!
We were stunned there wasn't a line. Turns out: there would not be. The rides were shutting down because of thunderstorms detected on the radar.
We waited a minute or two, considering our options. Here's a picture of one of the hills on Thunder Run. Also the ride queue leading up to the station.
The steps leading up to the station. The stickers were leftovers from when people wanted to avoid the Covid-19 plague, about keeping physical distances.
Here's the Bella Musica carousel, also not running (although we'd gotten a ride on that before going to Thunder Run). You can really see how threatening the skies looked, huh?
Trivia: The United States signed 368 treaties with Indian nations up to 1871 (not all ratified), when the federal government stopped negotiating with the native people this way. Source: Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World, Simon Winchester
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 52: There's a Hole in the Bottom!!, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly. Editor Stephanie Noelle.