Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo yesterday

Yesterday, my daughter Casey and my granddaughter, Alissa and I went to the Henry Dorley Zoo. It's rated as the number one zoo in America and it's really something else. I usually don't take photos of the animals, I figure I can look up better ones online than I'll ever take, so I take pics of people. Casey took that one of me and Lissa at the desert dome. Look how tall that kid is getting!

They had the coolest fountains and statues everywhere, even in the caves you went in to see underground animals and nocturnal critters. Some, in the dim cave light, you couldn't tell weren't real. You'd be walking around and see a real bat or a real bird hanging out, not caged, with you, and then suddenly your hand would hit one of the lizard sculptures and freak you out. It was pretty cool. The kids could play in all the fountains, which they did, because it was hot yesterday. I was so impressed with the grounds, the endless plantings and all the sculptures and fountains, I was in garden Heaven. If it had been just that, I would have been happy. But, the animals were very cool too.

There's just some random pictures. I think, for me, the Aquarium was one of the best exhibits. It has an underwater cave made of glass, that you can walk through and the fish swim over you. They had good sized sharks in it, along with giant Sea Turtles, Sting Rays and other assorted large fish. I loved the beautiful Star Fish exhibit..oh, and the Jelly Fish exhibits! They were out of this world. Not to mention the Sea plants and Anemone. It was incredible.

As you can probably see by my face, walking one exhibit was exhausting for me. I knew I was going to miss a lot because I just couldn't walk it. It's a huge place. But, Casey had the bright idea to rent me a wheelchair and she pushed me around so I got to see a whole lot more than I thought I would. We couldn't hit the whole zoo, it's just too large, but, we saw the Bears, Monkeys, Gorillas, big Cats, the Aquarium and part of the huge Aviary which held a small lake with Flamingos and Swans. It's was incredible. Oh, and we saw the Butterfly garden, which was okay, but, really, they're just bugs with wings, right? They had exhibits of other weird bugs too and I was like, get me out of here. You had to go through a check station to make sure no bugs were hitchhiking out on you. That was fucking gross. The Butterflies were okay though.

I usually don't photo the animals, but, this White Tiger was getting extremely worked up. He was so HUGE it was intimidating enough with just a pane of glass between us, but, this dude was mad. He kept pacing, quickly, back and forth, back and forth and I said, OMG, he's upset. You could tell he was in distress of some sort. This idiot man was banging on his glass, even though there were signs warning us not to. This Tiger finally got enraged and tried to attack the idiot through the glass. When he gave a roar and a snarl and leaped, I about pissed myself. He did it several times, hitting the glass with a loud bang and continued to pace and snarl. I got nervous, I thought the glass might break, and I left. People are crazy and they have no respect for these animals. Seeing the way people behave with the animals, exspecially the Apes, Monkeys and big Cats made me very sad. Sad for the animals and sad because people are so stupid and sad that they're raising their children to be just like them. No respect. Some of the children behaved really badly and their parents just let them. It made the visit to this unbelievable zoo, not as good as it should have been. But, other than the people, the zoo was fabulous. I think I liked the Aquarium the best, but, the most impressive animal was the Orangutang. OMG, it was nearly as big as the male Silverback Gorilla and it had such strength in it's huge hands. I had never seen one like that before. A picture just wouldn't show what I saw in person, so I didn't even try. I love Bears too, but, they were all sleeping. Still, you could get within inches of a sleeping Bear, which was pretty damn cool. All in all, it was a great trip and we had a lot of fun.

I didn't take the last three photos, but, I just wanted to show you some of this zoo. They have an actual Rain Forest you can walk through and it's big. You can walk on the upper levels where the Monkeys and Parrots live or you can walk the ground level and see animals down there.

Oh, and I had to add this photo because there are places you can stand and watch what's going on below the water. OMG. They have some big fish in there and I do mean big. We saw one as big as a boat and I am not exaggerating. It freaked me the fuck out. I think fish are slightly creepy anyway and I got the heebie jeebies. When you walk the upper levels it's quite scary as there are no visible barriers. I have no idea how the Monkeys don't just up and walk out of there. There are many ledges and caves you can go into to watch the wild life. In the tunnels and such, there are a few animals and birds that are loose. The upper levels made me nervous, I shouldn't admit that, but, it's true. I didn't go across any of the rickety rope bridges or any of that. No way. It was high. It's quite a place. If you ever get a chance to visit Omaha, don't miss it.