Holiday Let Down: Lights at the Zoo

At home, in the Fort, one of the things I loved about the Holidays were the Lights at the Zoo. We went many times over the years and it is was always a blast. Every imaginable thing is wrapped from top to bottom in lights… the zoo positively glows from a distance. There is ice skating, a puppet show, visits with Santa and petting zoo with reindeer. The lake in the center of the zoo is surrounded by lights with and there are displays in the water and strobe light/ laser light thing and it is all timed to music. There is snow on all the non-walk way areas, staff dressed up in costumes and lovely tunnels of lights you can walk through. The train runs around the park and they even show movies! Plus, all of the indoor exhibits are open you can see all of those animals… it is fun!

So, we decided that our end of semester activity with our exchange students to the local lights at the zoo. Even though I have been living down here for years I had never been to the lights at the zoo! Needless to say, I was really looking forward to the evening because 1) I love hanging out with the exchange students, they are such fun and 2) I loved the lights at the zoo back in the Fort, so I had high expectations. And I am so sad to report back to you all that it was a huge disappointment!

The palm trees were very cool!

There were lights, but not everything was covered. There was nothing to do but walk around and look at the lights, no ice skating, no puppets, no reindeers and we couldn’t even go into the indoor exhibits. It was actually really hard to even see where the path was and there weren’t any signs really to point us in any direction. We did see a lot of flamingos, and they were entertaining. I did love the palm trees wrapped in lights, that is something we definitely DO NOT have in the North! We did get a group picture with Santa and we all got funnel cakes. It was the first time one of my students had ever had funnel cake!  I am happy to report that she gave it two thumbs up. So we enjoyed our time together and catching up, plus eating some yummy deep-fried treats, but the cost of the ticket wasn’t really worth what you got at the zoo. So, if you live near me I would not add it to your holiday plans. Sorry 😦

Sad little lights