Destination: Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, Florida

"Zoo:  An excellent place to study the habits of human beings."

 - Evan Esar

Yes, ugh... It's Monday but that does not mean that this simply can't be the first of many Fridays which you experience this week.  Chucky no longer says, "You know it's going to be a bad week when by 8:05 AM on Monday you're already looking forward to happy hour on Friday!"

Chucky and Tiffany at Lowry Park Zoo, Tampa, Florida

I would ask you to guess what Chucky and Tiffany did yesterday (Sunday) but if today's blog title doesn't give you a clue you're simply a slow learner and you couldn't be up to the challenge of an answer.  Yes, Tiffany and I met my brother and his sweetheart for a day at the zoo.  He was in Clearwater, Florida finishing up a regional bowling tournament so we decided to go over to Tampa and spend the day with them.  Tampa is just a wee bit over two hours from our boxes (home).

Sadly, I used to live in Tampa for a couple of years many, many moons ago.  Back before they demolished and rebuilt the city's skyline, when University of South Florida called themselves the "brahmans" instead of the "bulls", when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers began their first or second season, when the Bucs played in the "The Big Sombrero" (their old stadium), when the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team existed, when Rodney Marsh played for the Rowdies and when brothers Lee Roy & Dewey Selmon played for the Bucs.  I remember all of the "Throw McKay (John) in the Bay" bumper stickers and when fans wore paper sacks over their heads to hide their identities when watching the games (if it truly fair to call them that).  For anyone familiar with Tampa, the city of Lutz was nothing more than orange groves.  Yeah ~ quite a long time ago.

In all of that time studying in school over there, I never watched a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game, never watched a Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer game, never visited historic Ybor City, and never visited the Lowry Park Zoo.  I was just too busy between working, studying and sleeping for anything else to do.  Any spare money in my pockets went to a box of Minute Rice and a can of Campbell's Chunky soup to last me six or seven meals of the week.  Oddly enough, those were really nice days and I appreciated a dollar more than any subsequent time of my life.

Guess what I learned today?  A couple of things actually.  Most important is that the Lowry Park Zoo is a fantastic place and worth every penny of admittance!  Second, I used to live but only a few miles away from the zoo in the Town 'n' Country area of Tampa.  I used to work close to the zoo at I-75 (since renamed I-275) & Hillsborough Avenue (SR 580).  I knew that I was close but never imagined that I was so close.  Sometimes it's strange the small things learned later in one's life, huh?

"Oh?  The zoo?"  Maybe pictures can do more justice than any of my words can do?  I've seemed to once again ramble on in preface to my subject matter.  I hope that you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed being there and taking them.

Wild Turkey -  Could have been USA national symbol if Ben Franklin had his way.

Warthog - Who says there are not hippies in the animal kingdom?

Even nature's animals get together for afternoon chat.

Okay, okay... it's a big butt but it's an attractive butt!

Oh?  My brother and his girlfriend?  Let's just call them "Brad" & "Angie", okay?

Hi-dee hi-dee visit-a-local-zoo-in-your-community-ho my friend.