Zoo trip

I'm sick again. I got this cold right after we visited the zoo on Friday. My sister Tina was off because of Veteran's Day and wanted to do something fun with the kids. So off to the LA Zoo we went. We all sacrificed our part to go: my dad because he woke up early instead of sleeping till noon like he normally does, my mom because she hates being in the sun these days and the stink of animals, us because Kevin had to request a day off and then had to drive all that way, Eric my 12 year old cousin because he ended up pushing a stroller all day long, and Tina because I don't know why.

It took us awhile to get started because as soon as we got there, my dad had to eat. Although he has diabetes, he didn't eat breakfast. His reasoning was that he never eats breakfast. Yeah, that's because he usually sleeps till noon! And my mom has been trained by him to be extra paranoid about food. So she thinks we're all starving and insists we eat the sandwiches which is actually our lunch. After half an hour, we finally left the front gate area and looked for some animals. Fortunately, they were pretty active, not like the usual sleeping animals. Let's see, we saw two cute bears eating, the male lion humping the female lion, two tiger cubs romping around, an orangutan mother playing with her baby, and a big chimp fight where two males ran around screaming and banging on the glass. It was really something. They scared my daughter who ran away. My son, who was sitting on Kevin's shoulder at the time, said, "hey, you two, knock it off." Guess where he's heard that before, like all the time?

The only bad part was the flamingoes which smelled like they were standing in raw sewage. There were two exhibits of flamingoes, and both smelled bad. I would advise anyone to stay away from flamingoes. Also, my parents started throwing peanuts at the mother orangutan which caused everyone to stare. You all know now how I feel about people staring, so I had to insist that they quit throwing them. Even though the mother orangutan did come nearer with her baby and, as my mother pointed out, there was no actual sign saying do not feed the orangutan. By the way, my parents almost always travel with peanuts because my dad loves 'em. In fact, when his doctor first told him to cut back on fatty foods, my dad asked, "how about peanuts, I can eat peanuts?" And then when the doctor told him no, he should cut back, my dad said," how about I eat only 10 peanuts a day?"

All in all, it was an interesting and fun trip. After we left the zoo, my nose started running and hasn't stopped. So don't be surprised if you don't hear from me for the next few days because not only will I be nursing my cold but also probably the rest of the family's