Our second week together was quite busy with having planned get-togethers, the Phoenix Zoo, and Fashion Square Mall. I am going to skip over the get-togethers because that involves personal information of people outside of Virginie and I. For now, I am going to talk about our Phoenix Zoo adventure and Fashion Square a little later.
Phoenix Zoo:
Ah, the Phoenix Zoo, a place that I hadn’t visited in well over a decade but it is definitely a tourist destination. I had no idea at what to expect, all I knew was that the Zoo was a pricey adventure. Pricey is an understatement… just to get inside the Zoo it was $40 a piece. I digress, let’s get started!
We chose a perfect day to go to the zoo, it was in the mid-80s with a nice breeze. Weather is always important when it comes down to visiting the Phoenix Zoo. Any Phoenician knows all too well that a hot day can ruin even the most fun of outdoors events.
We get through the ticket gate and Virginie looks at me with that look of “where do we go?”. I am fairly certain I gave her the same exact look in return. To be frank, I am probably the worst tour guide because I rarely venture outside my little bubble.
After staring at each other, looking like two severely confused Pigeons, we finally decided it would be a good idea to look at our guidebook. The Arizona Trail and Manta Ray Tank seemed to be a great starting point. They were right next to us and it seemed to lead into the rest of the park. We ditched our Pigeon facade and began our journey through the animal kingdom.
Manta Rays:
I was definitely surprised when I saw that the Phoenix Zoo had a place where you could pet Manta Rays. It is not something that comes to mind when you go to a Zoo that is literally in the middle of a Desert nature preserve. In my opinion, once you see one Manta Ray tank, you have seen them all. I was a big fan of SeaWorld when I was younger so I have had my lifetime fill of petting the Rays. Virginie, on the other hand, was absolutely thrilled to put her hand under the water and feel the Rays glide beneath her hand. Whilst she enjoyed this new experience, I was reading the list of facts plastered to the tank. I wish I could tell you all about Manta Ray facts but I am sorry to say I don’t remember a single fact. They have a pointy tail and they killed Steve Irwin, that is the extent of my knowledge of these beautiful creatures.
With Virginie’s hand smelling like a bucket of fish, it was time for us to head down the Arizona Trail. I was excited about this little excursion because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to take Virginie all around Arizona and this was a good way for her to get a little taste of how diverse this state is. I can safely say the Arizona Trail delivered on that.
Arizona Trail:
Seeing all the snakes that inhabit Arizona was something very interesting to me, not so much for Virginie. I am fairly certain it was making her doublethink her decision of coming here. I had to keep reassuring her that in my 23-years of life I have only seen two Rattlesnakes and one Kingsnake in the wild. It did little to ease her.
Snakes were not the only thing on the Arizona Trail. The trail had some fantastic species of birds. I was thrilled to see that they had a pair of California Condors because, in my opinion, they are the best part of the Grand Canyon. Since we did not have time to go to the Grand Canyon, this was an excellent way of giving her a little piece of the Grand Canyon viewing experience. The Zoo also offered an in-depth look at how we have brought the California Condors back from the brink of extinction. All around this exhibit was very well put together and I was happy that Virginie could learn a little bit about this magnificent bird.
They also had a Bald Eagle which was awesome to show Virginie. Given that it is a huge symbol of the USA and she was visiting from France. I told Virginie that it was way more special to see them in the wild. With us staying in the valley, it was unlikely we’d see a wild one so this was a good alternative. Virginie got a strong dose of Freedom *sarcasm *.
The last notable bird we saw was the burrowing owls. I don’t have much to say about these little dudes but it was really neat seeing them. With them being critically endangered and absolutely adorable, it would be a crime to not mention them.
Next up was the mammals of Arizona. Surprisingly they did not have many on display when we went. I noticed they were doing renovations of some of the enclosures and this is probably the reason for so many of them missing. It was a real bummer because I was looking forward to seeing the Mexican wolves and some of the hooved creatures we have native to Arizona.
We were lucky of enough to see two of my favorites, the Mountain Lion and Bobcat. I love seeing these two big cats because it is so rare to catch a glimpse of them in the wild. In all honesty, it is probably a good thing we don’t see them often. Virginie and I spent entirely too long admiring these majestic beasts. After our admiration faded it was time for us to get off of the Arizona Trail.
Safari Ride:
The next closest activity to us was the Safari Train ride. We paid the extra $10 at the door in order for us to get a train ticket. I am not going to dedicate much time to this section because it was a legit waste of time and money. While riding on this “train” you can barely see any of the animals. The only good part about it was the facts the driver would spew out during the ride. Virginie and I ended up walking the same path as the train took and it was much more enjoyable. We missed the 4D movie for this disappointment.
After our little train ride around the Zoo, we decided to head towards an exhibit that just opened. Dinosaurs In The Desert was the name of it if I recall correctly. Virginie and I saw an advertisement for this on the web and it was really the driving force behind going to the Phoenix Zoo. We are both huge fans of Jurassic Park so this seemed right up our alley.
Dinosaurs In The Desert:
The Phoenix Zoo did an exceptional job setting up this little adventure back in time. The exhibit was placed on the far side of the zoo, up against a mountain. While walking up towards the entrance of the exhibit you would hear dinosaurs calling out. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought they had live dinosaurs there.
Once you go through the entrance, you would follow a dirt path that went up and down a circular hill. Every ten or fifteen yards you would see an animatronic dinosaur poking its head out of a bush. In all honesty, it felt like we were in Jurassic Park: Desert Edition. The dinosaurs would screech and holler at you which would instill a slight bit of fear in you, mixed with a heavy dose of amazement. A few of the dinosaurs would surprise you by spitting cold water at you. I am pretty sure this was Virginie’s favorite part because it was pretty warm out by the time we were at this exhibit.
The dinosaur trail did not take too long to complete but it was definitely one of the highlights of our visit. It was fun to entertain our kid-like fascination for dinosaurs. We took pictures of every dinosaur which I will leave below.
By this time in our journey through the Phoenix Zoo, we were both getting a little hungry and thirsty. It was my chance to introduce Virginie to some more new foods again. This time I chose Churros and the classic ICEE. Who doesn’t love those two things? Virginie was no exception, the ICEE did just the trick to cool her down during the hot day. The Churro, well you can’t say much bad about those things. It was really fresh, so it was exceptionally tasty!
Monkey Village:
We finished our little snack and headed for our last exhibit of the day, Monkey Village! I have been to this exhibit before so I was extremely excited to show Virginie this. She absolutely loves Monkeys. One of the very first gifts I gave to Virginie was a stuffed monkey and she never lets that thing out of her sight. Once she figured out that we would be inside the enclosure with the little monkeys, her face lit up like a Christmas tree.
Once we arrived at the entrance of the Monkey Village the kind Zookeeper gave us a quick summary of the rules. It was all common sense stuff like don’t touch, don’t run, and stay on the path. It was time for us to enter! The first monkey we saw was one of the newborns. This little guy was heart-melting cute, it almost made me scream like a school-girl. Virginie was just as much stunned by the cuteness as I was. Once we snapped to our normal selves, we continued down the short path. Many monkeys jumped and gilded around us while we looked in amazement. It is pretty surreal to be so close to something that is wild and also closely resembles a human being. In the short time, we were in there, we could get a sense of how their Hierarchy worked. I truly do envy the zookeeper’s that get to work inside the Monkey Village. It would be hard to have a bad day when being surrounded by adorable little monkeys.
Virginie and I really had to force ourselves out of the Monkey Village due to the zoo closing soon. I regret not going there earlier because I would have loved to stay a little bit longer. For anyone who has never been to the Phoenix Zoo, I highly recommend that you go just for this exhibit alone. It was well worth the admission price to hang-out with some little monkeys.
Finishing Our Day at The Phoenix Zoo:
The sun was starting to set and Virginie and I needed to quickly see the last handful of animals. By this point in our journey, there was not anything more to really mention about the Phoenix Zoo. However, I do want to talk about an observation I made while being in the gift shop. The gift shop is seriously a parent’s worst nightmare. Everything is grossly overpriced and a child is bound to want something. I have never in my life seen so many different temper-tantrums as I did that day at the Phoenix Zoo gift shop. I could almost feel how frustrated some of those parents were. Being a parent is one responsibility that I never wish to have. Passing on our last name is definitely up to my brother!
After the Phoenix Zoo, Virginie and I were pretty much spent of all our energy. We picked up a pizza on the way home from one of my favorite pizza places and brought it home. I introduced Virginie to dipping her pizza into Ranch that night. Now that she is back in France, every time she eats pizza she feels like something is missing because she doesn’t have access to Ranch. Like I said earlier, I definitely created a bad habit by introducing ranch into Virginie’s life. I am sorry!
We finished up our dinner and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We ended the night much like the previous nights, with our hearts full of love and smiles on our faces.
All funds go towards immigration fees ($1235/$1435). Almost there!