Last weekend I went to the Minnesota Zoo with a group of friends. It was one of the first times I had this break to really have a good time and not worry about College or Work. Sheena was kind enough to get us all tickets to go and they needed to be used by the end of the year. We ended up with a bunch of tickets that we could not use so we handed them out to couples as they walked in the door. The reactions ranged from confusion to joy, but there is never anything like spreading holiday cheer.

While we were at the zoo we decided to see the Bird Show right away at 1:00pm and boy am I glad that we decided to go because it was a riot. There was a mishap with the show that lead to some awesome pictures and a great story. In the middle of the show the trainer started talking about what kind of food large raptors tend to eat. At the same time trained rats ran along the backdrop on a vine so all of the kids would go wild. It was a great addition to the show and it went very smoothly until the next bird came out. I guess not all of the rats got put away because this bird just had a bead on the front stage ready to fly down and snatch something up. The kids pointed out the rat that was still out and the trainer did her best to keep the rat in the tree. The rats started to bite her hand so she covered them with a hankerchief. That owl took off and pounced on what it thought was a rat but was only a bit of cloth. After that it was pretty agitated that it was not going to receive a nice juicy meal after all so it disobeyed the trainers and flew around the room eventually moving down the exit hall and hitting the glass door. As far as I know the bird was okay and the trainer rushed to take care of it.

The rest of the day at the zoo was pretty productive in terms of photographs. I was pretty bummed that the Minnesota Trail was closed for remodeling. I guess it will be open again this summer. Please do everything you can to support the Minnesota Zoo.