Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo

A few weeks ago two friends and one of my "cuzzins" and I decided to spend Saturday at the North Carolina Zoo. By landmass, this is the largest zoo in North America and comprises two sections: the North American Pavilion and the Africa Pavilion. For the most part, the animals are kept in huge areas with vegetation similar to that of their natural habitat, and a visitor follows a long winding trail that loops through these areas. To walk both Pavilions is to walk 5 miles or so. We visited both areas on this day and had a picnic lunch in between. The Zoo is located near Asheboro, NC, which is about an hour and a half from where I live in Durham, NC. It was a beautiful day--perfect temperature, and we learned later that they had set an attendance record for that day--over 11,000 people joined us and the animals!

About the title of this post: a long long time ago my cousin Gary Olsen came back from Vietnam and gave many of his siblings and aunts and uncles an album called "The Compleat Tom Paxton." Many of us have learned the words to many songs on this album, most of which are anti-war songs. (Many of us have shared those lyrics in very off-tune renditions of these same songs to members of the unsuspecting public from time to time.) Years later, when Gary was dying, I tried to find that album on a CD. The closest I could find was "The Very Best of Tom Paxton," which included many of the songs from the album we all knew as well as a few new ones, including a children's song called "Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo." One of my yet-to-be accomplished projects is to set pictures from our zoo trip to the music of this song. When I do, I'll post it here.

For now, please enjoy the pictures!

PS: Daisy, The World's Most Spoiled Dog, did NOT get to go on this trip. Don't tell her I blogged about it!