The Zoo

This is an old post that Peter never posted....thought you would enjoy his insights:

So Jen and I were able to go to the zoo for the first time in our relationship. This is a major accomplishment and something we have been talking about doing for the last 5 years. All and all it was a nice day, but let me tell you some of the more interesting things that happened.



My family went to the Oregon Zoo many times during my childhood so I have lots of fond memories walking through the zoo with my Dad trying to make sure all 7 of us make it to the next exhibits with out any of us getting lost. I also remember that one of my favorite exhibits was the penguins. Somehow over the last 20 years my memory of the penguin tank size has grown. I remember it being this vast playground of water and rocks with the penguins diving in, swimming frantically back & forth, popping out of the water and then doing it all over again. Not so. This time around there was only one penguin in the water and he was very concerned with something underneath his wing. The tank is pretty small and it just wasn’t quite as amazing as I remember it.
One thing about the penguin cage that was the same was the smell. I can remember walking up to the door to go in and telling Jen, “It is going to smell a little funny in there”. It did smell funny, a cross between dead fish and other things. As we were walking out of the display there was a mom and her daughters in front of us.

Mom: “What did you think of the smell in there?”
8 year old girl: “It smelled like dog poop... “slight pause” .. and grandpa.”
Mom: “....”

At this point Jen and I started talking about how sad it was that grandpa smelled liked the stinky penguin tank and how fortunate we were that none of our grandparents smelled like dead fish or dog poop. Sometimes we never realize how blessed we are.
After this, Jen and I were looking at the Siberian Tiger. We then got into a discussion about who would win in a fight between a Siberian Tiger and a Polar Bear. Jen thought the tiger would win and I thought the bear would win. Unfortunately for us, Siberian Tigers are getting close to extinction and polar bears probably will be soon too, so unless Fox Broadcasting decides to start a new reality tv show called “Clash of the angry animals” we will never know for sure who would win. But it is fun to think about.