Thursday, November 08, 2007

Coffee and the Zoo



This morning Eleanor was talking on her "phone" (a calculator) while drinking her "coffee" (herbal tea). I'm not sure where she learned such behavior.

Yesterday we went to the LA Zoo. I bought a membership online, but didn't pay for it. The website had a bug and gave me a free membership. I decided to be honest and did pay for it when we got to the zoo. The cashier was grateful for my honesty and gave Eleanor a purple gorilla that is a piece of junk. And this is how one's house fills up with stuffed animals.

So we set off to the zoo in the morning. It's only about ten miles away, or about 15 minutes. I had my google map printed out and felt very confident in my ability to get us there. Unfortunately, California highways have signs a little past where they would need to be for one to see them in time have them influence their lane choice. When the highway I was on combined with another highway, I ended up going north into the heart of LA instead of south to the zoo. Google hadn't warned me of that. Not wanting to get lost in LA (again), I took the first exit and ended up in the parking lot of what I imagined to be some studio. Carefully examining my maps helped in no way, so a nice man walking by explained how to get back on the highway going the right direction. It was very simple. Eleanor made a point to tell Matt, "wrong way. Man say that way."

After we got to the zoo, we enjoyed all the animals. The gorilla exhibit happened to open yesterday. There were news crews and mobs of people, but other than that it was fun. Eleanor liked seeing the baby gorilla named Glenda who is actually only a couple of months older than E. She also liked the giraffes and the kangaroos. It was a quick trip, but since we have a membership now, we can go back often. Next time I'll remember the camera.

4 comments:

The Fanks said...

And you can go back now too because you got lost the first time. I remember driving around Dallas like that for weeks. But it was only weeks (like 20?) and then I felt empowered.

Unknown said...

I love the zoo and you are a rare find in this day and time to be an honest person to admit the website screwed up. I love that. Its a relief to know that there are nice people even in LA...you hear so many rotten things on the news about that area sometimes that its disheartening until I read your blog.

Anonymous said...

I just found this blog! Or maybe I knew about it once before and lost it. But, I've been checking the photoblog for a while, when I should have been checking this one!! My bad!

Everything in LR is good. Matt, you'll be glad to hear that Baptist Hospital has somehow managed to stay in business after your departure. Although it has been a rocky past few months from what i hear.

Ryan

LeLe said...

Ryan and I have just become blog friends through Melody's BookMooch account. Just thought you should know, especially since I was the one who got her addicted (for like one week) to it.