Musings from Graceland

No, that's not a photo of Super Dad or me after a long day at the zoo with our abundance of kids, that's the maniacal monkey that had us laughing and carrying on for way too long! Talking about anger issues...this golden-bellied mangabey did not like us, he especially did not like my sweet, gentle husband, and the teeth baring, bottom mooning, finger biting (the monkey's, not our's), feces throwing, and chest thumping testified to that quite clearly!

It had been a couple of years since we'd been to the Jackson Zoo and the mad mangabey was just one part of what made it a memorable day for us. We'd been to the New Orleans zoo twice over the last couple of years, but we'd not been to the Jackson one in two or three years due to all the construction going on and so much of it being closed down or empty of animals. A lot of work is still going on, but the new WILDERNESS MISSISSIPPI section makes a visit to the zoo worthwhile (that along with Mr. Personality Primate). They've done a great job building a beaver habitat that allows viewing of the den's inside and the otter exhibit was very well done. We stayed a long time watching those critters playing around. The spider exhibit at the WILDERNESS MISSISSIPPI were a bit freaky to some of the younger ones...in large part to certain older siblings acting spooky and creeped out. Merry really loved the elephants...they were the only animals she kept pointing at. And we were able to ride the endangered species carousel for the first time ( http://www.jacksonzoo.org/friends/carousel.html ). Merry rode sitting in my lap along with Travis in a peacock "boat" while some of the other kids rode on their own "endangered animals".

Now that we've renewed our membership, I'm sure that many more zoo trips will be in the works. Want to come along? :)