Justin Beaver

A friend texted me last night: "Hey do you guys want to go to the penguin parade at 2 tomorrow?"

I asked Saori, "hey Sachan, I know this is kind of a long shot, and you probably won't be interested, but there's a penguin parade at the zoo tomorrow. You wouldn't be interested in going, would you?"

Of course, she wasn't interested at all, so we only arrived an hour and a half early.

It was actually a really beautiful day out today, highs in the 40s, sunny. It was our first time to the zoo, which tells you a lot about my school program given that (1) It's free, (2) it's within a 3 mile radius of my house, and (3) I've lived here for a year and a half. We parked on the street, about 2/3 of a mile from the zoo since I was concerned about the parking situation (actually, in the winter it's fine. Almost nobody goes to the zoo when its so cold out).

Not too impressed when we first walked in. First, it was almost totally empty of people where we walked in, second, there were no animals in sight apart from the bear on top of the "build a bear workshop" boutique, and third, there was a major construction project to build what looks like a really cool sea lion exhibit. The only animals we saw outside were geese on the frozen lake, surrounded by shuttered stores and cafes.

We did find a group of people around the prarie dog enclosure, which was a hotbed of activity. I don't know if its just because its winter, but those were some fat little rodents, like oversized hamsters. They munched on veggies strewn about the large yard, chased each other around, sunbathed, and generally ignored both the birds which were so aggressive they were pecking food from the prarie dog's little hands, and also the smaller squirrels, who darted into an out of the enclosure with a sure ease, and wandered through the larger rodents stealing what they could with impunity. Something about that small, sunny community was highly mesmerizing.

The enclosed ape house reeked, but at least it was warm and humid inside. The enclosures are glass, so you can get up very close to the primates. The whole family of hominids were there- gorillas, orang-utans, chimpanzees, and humans on the other side of the glass. Only the bonobos were absent, since nobody really remembers them anyway. Very active apes, and they were as interested in us as we were in them.

The bird exhibit was also enclosed. I'm still not sure how I feel about enclosing birds in such small enclosures, indoors, permanently. They did have some beautiful birds.

When we made our way to the penguin exhibit, people were already lining up along the parade route. This was more than 40 minutes prior to the event. Lots of people, and more and more came as the time drew closer. We staked out a spot beside a woman who was like an obsessed, territorial little bird who pecked at people who as much as lingered for a moment in front of her staked claim. It got more crowded. Maybe 300-400 people squeezed up to form a wall along the sides of the walkway. I started wondering aloud when Justin Bieber was going to show up. Wardens patrolled the crowd pushing people back and reminding them via bullhorns not to touch the penguins, and to keep back. Saori and I fought to keep our space as well.

And then, an excited murmur from the crowd. An emperor penguin waddled into view, slowed down by an attendant warden trying to keep the group together. Then more penguins. Really only six or seven penguins, half emperor, the other half chinstrap? or another smaller species. They waddled around, mostly at random, guided by the wardens, while moms lunged forward with cameras and shoved their kids at the penguins. It was a mess of penguins, wardens, and people when they stopped right in front of us. I could have reached out and stuffed one into my jacket. Saori loved it and the kids were going nuts. It was pretty cool to see the penguins walking around in front of you.  If its really nasty weather next sunday, preferably with snow and ice, we'll be back.

We met up with some friends afterwards and walked around the zoo together. The indoor animal exhibits were interesting. Nothing much stirred in the outside enclosures. The river otters were happy though.

Saori and I went back to the Fox and Hound Tavern, an English style pub, and had a pint and some food while we warmed up.