Saturday, July 5, 2014

Vancouver Zoo

I'm a real fan of zoos. I enjoy all the different animals and set ups and it's all really amazing.

The Vancouver Zoo... I can not recommend. It's awful. First of all, it's an hour drive from downtown. It's out past all of the things and places and people. Still British Columbia, so still pretty and stuff, but way out there. 

So we've spent an hour in the car. We have to pay $6 for parking. Then we have to pay $24 per person. We're now $54 and gas money into this trip.

Then we see the first enclosure. It's for the lions. There's a chain link fence about 15 feet tall with some barbed wire at the top. THAT'S ALL THAT SEPARATES TWO LIONS FROM THE REST OF US. Maybe this is just a weird one. Maybe the actual lion cage is under renovations and they just had to put them here temporarily. Let's continue.

The map lets us know that there are no elephants or fancy things like that. The map does tell us that they have every kind of deer known to mankind. No bears or anything fun like that either. No real aqua-life, no seals or anything, or even polar bears. I'm not currently impressed. Maybe what they do have will trump what they don't. 

We walked past some baby pigs in the petting zoo area. Max freaks out! It's at least set up well.


That face though!!
This was one of the highlights of the day. 

We saw several deer or other large-hoofed types behind simple wire fences I'm convinced they could jump over if they really had the motivation. 

The vegetation is way over grown. There's horribly pointy bushes sprouting on the sides of all the paths. Then, the path became less paved. In fact, not paved at all. Simply gravel.

Well.

This is cute.

As we begin to question these pointy plants growing across the unpaved paths, we encounter a sign. "These plants are quite sharp! If you injure yourself on them, the pain should last 24 hours tops. Don't scratch, as it will only make the inflamed area worse."

Thanks. Real helpful.

No paths. No real fences. No real animals.

We walked back past the lions. I have a picture because I don't think anyone would believe it otherwise.



Which led to a repeat of this face.


There's no protection, so the lions can PEE ON YOU. Then they want you to let them know that it happened.

What is this place.

This is the best of the best. 

We were on our way out when we spotted the birds of prey show! The owl was out and about. It's name is Hagrid. I got to hold him! It was amazing! Then there was a hawk and a falcon. The guy was from Australia and had an amazing since of humor. This was the only redeeming thing about this zoo.