My Last Vacation Blog

I know, don't cry.
So we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo, a very cool place. I like the 10 story escalator you have to ride up to even GET to it, it's on a mountain just like everything else around there. Again, many of my pictures are of one animal or another, you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. Discovery Channel, National Geographic, the zoo- lions and tigers and bears, etc etc. As I did last time we went to a zoo, I only included pictures that may be a little out of the norm.

This one's for you Christy....


Okay, I SWEAR I never saw the message on the glass, and I took like five or six pictures. Aaron actually pointed it out when I was done-"No Flash Photography". Actually if you want to get technical, it says "o Flash Photography." I mean if they were really serious about it, you'd think they'd go to the trouble of pasting an N back on. I blame them. Aaron, trying to make me feel better about it, says "Good job Jen, you probably just killed it." I consulted a vet friend who volunteers regularly at an aquarium, and she said it actually just startles them and will make them go hide. SO THERE! And it didn't go hide, which means it's probably used to having it's picture taken, which means I'm probably one in a LONG line of octopus paparazzi.

This was taken in the bat area, which smelled like a giant pile of rancid spicy diarrhea, that someone threw up anchovies and tuna on, that some human sized dying amphibian crawled on top off just before it kicked the bucket, and someone found it after it had been baking/rotting in a humid climate for a week. I was taking a picture of one of the bats that were hanging upside down, and I didn't even realize this happened until I checked my pictures-

How cool is that??!!! A still of a winged rat in motion! It's like the ones behind it were changing clothes and he was blocking the view. "Move along people, nothing to see here..."

And last but not least, the wildest but cutest animals of all...

It was doing a fair amount of raining, so Gram and Gramps bought them some gear.

On the way to PA, there are a couple of long tunnels. They go under the mountains in Virginia. When we were heading back, Aaron thought it would be a great idea to start blasting away on the horn when we were going through one. At first I was like "Stop it!" Then all the other cars and trucks started honking, and the tunnel became a symphony of echoing toots. The kids loved it, and we exited the tunnel feeling a little closer to and more positive about our fellow man.

We entered the second tunnel (an hour or so following the first), and Aaron starts blast way again. Unfortunately, only one person responded this time, and only once. It was an 18 wheeler. Aaron continued to give it his best effort until we reached the end, but we didn't get any other responses.

After we were out, we started to come up alongside the 18 wheeler. I started smiling and raising my hand to wave, my way of thanking him for being decent enough to be the only other person to honk. We're right next to him, and I look up to see his arm raised as well- the back of his hand pressed to the window, middle finger extended. I started CRACKING UP, and I told Aaron what he did. Almost as funny was the fact that Aaron refused to believe he flipped us off. "Maybe he was giving us the thumbs up, or an a-okay sign." Um, I'm pretty sure I know what "the bird" looks like, it's a gesture I'm QUITE familiar with.