A Visit to the Detroit Zoo

A Visit to

the Detroit

Zoo

Debbie Barry

2 A Visit to the Detroit Zoo

Published by:

Debbie Barry

2500 Mann Road, #248

Clarkston, Michigan 48346

USA

Copyright © 2013 by Deborah K. Barry. All

rights reserved.

Photography by Debbie Barry.

No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted

by any means without the written permission

of the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1490444130

ISBN-10: 1490444130

A Visit to the Detroit Zoo 3

August 14, 2009


A Visit to the

Detroit Zoo

“We’re going to the zoo!”

Robby ran through the house,

shouting joyfully.

Mom laughed. Robby was seven

years old. The family had moved to

Michigan just a few weeks ago, and

this was their first big outing.

“I wanna see the monkeys!”

Tommy whooped. Tommy was a year

older than Robby. Monkeys were his

favorite animals in the whole world.

“What’s all the ruckus?” Dad

asked, coming out of the bedroom.


“They’re excited about the

zoo,” Mom explained.

“I guess we should get to the

zoo, then.” Dad said, smiling through

his thick beard.

The boys bounced and fidgeted

in their seats in the back of the big,

tan van all the way to the zoo. It was

a half hour ride, but Mom and Dad did

their best to be patient. Finally, Dad

turned off the highway and soon the

van pulled in to the parking lot of the

zoo.

Everyone piled out of the van

and walked to the admissions gate

together. Dad bought tickets for

everyone and collected several copies

of the map of the zoo. Together, the


family stepped through the gate into

the first courtyard of the zoo.

“Wow!” Robby shouted. “Look!”

“A train!” Tommy chimed in. “I

want to ride the train. Mom and Dad

talked about it for a minute. They

decided to ride the train to the back

of the zoo and to make their way back

to the front gate as they viewed the

animals. Dad bought four tickets for

the train and they all settled in to

wait.

The wait was not long, and soon

they were all seated on the train. The

train ran along the outside edge of

the zoo, and everyone was

disappointed that it did not provide a

view of many of the animals. It was a

short ride, though, and soon the


family stepped off the train at Africa

Station.

Africa Station was the real

start of the family’s zoo experience.

The first stop was the warthogs.

Even though it was early in the day, it

was already hot in the zoo, so the


warthogs were lying down to rest in

the shade. The boys decided that

they were quite sensible warthogs to

be resting on a hot, summer day.

“Look at those things on the

warthog’s face!” Robby said excitedly.

“Those are its tusks,” Tommy

replied. They have four of those

tusks, and they’re really sharp.”

“Look, guys,” Mom called,

pointing to a sign on the fence.

“These warthogs are herbivores.

That means they eat a lot of grass.”


The next stop in Africa Station

was the African wild dogs. The wild

dogs were just as lethargic as the

warthogs and they had huddled into

the deepest shade they could find,

making them very hard to see.

“The sign says their name

means painted wolf,” Tommy said,

reading the sign by the exhibit.

“We can’t see the paint,” Robby

complained, “they’re hiding in the

dark.”


Not discouraged by the hiding

dogs, the family carried on to the

next exhibit.

From the while dogs, the family

moved on to the far more active and

impressive white rhinoceri. Everyone

was awed by the great size of a white

rhinoceros. It is hard to describe

how big they are, or to have a sense

of their size, without seeing them in

person.

“They’re almost as big as

elephants,” Tommy breathed in awe.

“They’re endangered, too,”

Robby commented, reading another

sign. “They could go extinct.”


Across from the rhinoceros

exhibit, the family found an enclosure

full of Grevy’s zebras.

“Look at the stripes!” Robby

exclaimed.

“These are herbivores, too, just

like the warthogs and the

rhinoceroses,” said Tommy. “They like

to eat grass on the savannah.” Again,

he was taking advantage of the zoo’s

informational signs.


“I know a girl called Savannah,”

Robby giggled.

As the boys giggled about

zebras and girls, the zebras took it

easy, resting on the ground or


peacefully cropping the short grass of

their enclosure.

Turning from the zebras, the

family saw a wandering peacock with a

brilliantly plumed tail.

“Look, boys,” Dad said, pointing.

“Check out the little peahen. She

doesn’t have bright colors like the

peacock, so she can hide in the dust.

The boys looked and they saw that a

peahen had built a nest in the edge of

the rhinoceros enclosure. She was

hardly visible with her dusty brown

feathers against the dirt.

“Monkeys!” Tommy cried with

delight, breaking away from the

family to run to the next exhibit.

Tommy had found the snow monkeys,

with their own, rocky mountain in


their enclosure. Tommy had talked all

the way to the zoo about meeting his

friends the monkeys, so this was a

special stop.

“These are my buddies,” Tommy

enthused. “They’re really called

Japanese macaques, but these are

monkeys.”


At the corner of the monkey

exhibit was another small enclosure

containing ruffed lemurs, which are

always cute.

“They look like Zoboo!” Robby

exclaimed, referring to ringed lemur

character on the PBS television series

Zoboomafoo that the boys had

watched as preschoolers and still

loved to watch when they could.

After watching the antics of

the monkeys and the lemurs, the

family stepped into the invitingly cool

air conditioning of the Meerkat Digs

exhibit. Inside the exhibit, meerkats

had their underground world displayed

in cross section behind a large

expanse of glass.


“The glass is too reflective and

it’s too dark in here to take pictures,”

Mom grumbled, putting her camera

away.

“I’ve seen these on Meerkat

Manor,” Tommy said, pointing to a

meerkat that was standing on its hind

legs, its front paws held against its

chest, as it used its tail to keep its

balance.

“Yes, we watch that on Animal

Planet,” Mom agreed. “Look at the

burrows the meerkats have made in

their habitat.”

Leaving the indoor meerkat

exhibit, the family followed the path

toward the African lion. Along the

way, they admired the bright, pink


plumage of a flock of African

flamingos in another exhibit.

“Those flamingos need a lot of

water,” Robby commented, pointing to

the birds behind the fence.

“Yeah, and only the adults are

pink,” Tommy added. “They change

when they grow up.”

Rounding a curve in the path,

the family came to the lion exhibit.

One large, maned lion was napping

happily on a rock ledge. Asleep, lions

look very cuddly.

“I wish we had seen him up and

active,” Mom said, “but he’s cute.”


“Okay, guys,” Dad said, “what do

you know about lions?”

“They don’t live in the jungle,

even though they’re the king of the

jungle,” Robby answered quickly.

“Right,” Dad nodded, “where do

they live?”

“On the savannah, same as the

zebras,” Tommy replied.

“Good!” Dad approved. “What

do they eat?”

“Meat!” both boys chorused.

“So, are they herbivores like

the rhinos and the zebras?” Dad

asked.

“No, they’re carnivores,

because they eat meat. That’s why he

has those sharp, pointy teeth.” Tommy

replied.


“Right!” Dad said approvingly.

On the way out of the African

savannah, the family stopped at a

water fountain and Dad lifted each of

the boys up to cool off in the spray

from a misting machine. It was a hot

day, and the mist felt good. Mom got

close enough to get some mist on her

face, too. The kids were delighted

with the cool water.

The gorillas were not visible

from the path, so the family made its


way around their enclosure to the

Great Apes of Harambee. They still

couldn't see the gorillas from the

outside viewing area, although Mom

was pleased to get a lovely picture of

a dramatic rock formation in their

habitat.

“Dad,” Robby asked, “is the wire

fence around the edge here an

electric fence?”

Dad smiled at the question. He

first explained how the boys could tell

it was not electric, and was safe.

Then he hammed it up, showing them

what might happen if they did grab an

electric fence wire, and getting the

expected laughs for his antics.

The chimpanzees, on the other

side of the viewing area, were more in


evidence than the gorillas had been,

although they were mostly resting.

Mom was able to get a picture of a

chimpanzee resting on a tree branch.

“See?” Robby said, pointing to

the distant chimpanzees. “Everyone

says they’re monkeys. Even my


teacher calls them monkeys. But look,

they don’t have any tails, so they’re

chimps, not monkeys.”

Inside the Harambee building,

the family did get a look at the

gorillas through the glass. They were

mildly disappointed that they never

saw the drills that were supposed to

share space with the gorillas, but they

decided that the drills must be

resting. Robby got interested in a

display that compared the skulls and

hands of various apes and humans.

As she was leaving the ape

exhibit, Mom finally saw a gorilla

clearly, without a lot of reflections

from the glass – or at least she saw a

gorilla’s arm. It reached around the

corner from behind a wall near the


viewing window. Quickly, she pulled

out her camera and snapped a picture.

They saw more flamingos,

cranes, and storks as they left the


great apes on their way to find some

lunch.

Just outside the ape exhibit,

they stopped along the way to visit a

drumming tree, and to read about how

chimpanzees beat on the wing-like

buttresses of the trees to create

drum sounds to impress each other,

and how the males make as much noise

as they can. The boys took the


opportunity to show how similar

humans are to the apes by doing their

own drumming on the tree buttresses.

Mom took the opportunity to sit down

and rest on one of the low butresses

while the boys imitated chimpanzees.


“Did you know,” she asked them,

“that the chimps are so strong that

when they drum on these trees the

sound can be heard about half a mile

away?


The family had lunch at the

Arctic Food Court. The food was a bit

on the expensive side, so the boys had

two small, pepperoni pizzas and two

soft pretzels, and each of the adults

just had a soft pretzel. Everyone had

drinks, of course. Tommy and Robby


had juice drinks that came in sippy

bottles shaped like animals, with

Tommy getting a pink chimpanzee and

Robby getting a blue Tyrannosaurus

rex.

After lunch, the boys posed

first with a statue of three

chimpanzees, then with a statue of a

standing polar bear.


They followed the path around

a low hill and entered the Arctic Ring

of Life next. Robby and Dad explored

an interesting log door set into a bank,

but they decided it was just a

zookeeper's entrance. After that,

the family saw a poor, hot polar bear

that was sleeping in the grass under

the sun. It looked up once as they

were watching, but it appeared to

decide it was too hot to get up, and

then it went back to sleep.

The boys were excited by a

viewing area that appeared to be


made of mammoth ribs lashed

together overhead, even though the

polar bears were not visible from that

vantage; only a few birds were visible

as they splashed at the edge of the

water.

“Check it out!” Robby enthused,

turning in a circle as he looked up at

the structure.

“Awesome!” Tommy agreed.

Walking further along the path,

they entered the seal exhibit next.

They stood for a while along the rail

fence and watched the seals swimming

in their pool before the family moved

into the underwater tunnel.

“Ooh!” both boys breathed with

delight as they stepped into the

watery, blue world inside the


transparent tunnel under the division

between the polar bear pool and the

seal pool.

The tunnel was packed with

visitors, but Mom felt like they were

all alone in the Arctic tunnel. She

decided that was her favorite exhibit


in the entire zoo as she settled onto

one of the smooth, cool benches along

the side of the space. Mom, Dad, and

the boys watched in rapt amazement

the seals and the polar bears

swimming over and alongside the

transparent tube of the tunnel.


One silly seal was holding itself

in place with its nose pointing into the

stream from a water jet in the side of

the tank, effectively getting a

massage. The polar bear, when it

made its appearance, was very


impressive and beautiful. If it hadn't

been so crowded and noisy, Mom

thought, she could happily have stayed

in that underwater tunnel for hours,

just watching the silly, graceful seals

and the beautiful polar bears

swimming in the cool, blue and white

environment.


On the way out of the Polar

Passage, Tommy and Robby checked

out the real ice walls at the exit, with

an assortment of paw prints in the ice.

“It’s cold!” Tommy yelped as he

placed his hand in one of the polar

bear prints that were melted into the

ice. He giggled, running his hands

over the smooth, cool surface of the

ice.

“It feels good!” Robby said,

pressing both hands against the ice

and then wiping the cool moisture over

his face, laughing.

Above the Polar Passage was

the Polar Exploration Station, where

the family went next. In the station,

they could see the polar bear pool

both above and below the water.


It was interesting for Mom and

Dad to watch the bears' antics from

both perspectives at once. Robby was

particularly interested in a polar bear

claw that was lying on the bottom of

the pool near the viewing window, so

Mom took a picture of it for him.

Tommy was taken with a camera

that he was able to control with a

joystick to view the polar bear


environment from above. Robby

explored a polar bear skull and a piece

of fur in the room that was set up to

resemble a polar explorer's station,

complete with gear for living in the

station and doing polar research. The

whole family also had a really

interesting, unique view of the tunnel

that they had just gone through,

looking down through the water.

Coming out of the Exploration

Station, the boys were taken with the

crowds of gulls that were perched on

the rocks at the top of the polar

exhibit. Tommy stopped to place his

hand in a paw print he found in the

road.

The boys were pleased to find

another misting machine outside the


polar exhibit, and they got

comfortably cool and wet playing in

the spray. Everyone enjoyed the

short cooling-off break.

The next stop was the

anteaters exhibit. Anteaters are

really odd-looking creatures. Happily,

the anteaters were more active than a

lot of the animals the family had seen

had been so far.

“Where do you think anteaters

come from?” Dad asked the boys.

“South America,” Tommy

replied, spotting another exhibit sign.


“They really do eat ants,” Robby

added, “but they eat other bugs, too.

Gross!” He grinned with the sort of

pleasure only a small boy can take in

gross things.

Walking around the bend from

the anteaters, the family was

delighted to discover a gorgeous pair

of scarlet macaws.

“Oh, how beautiful,” Mom

breathed.

“It’s a parrot!” Robby

exclaimed.

“No, it’s a macaw,” Tommy

countered, once again reading a sign.

“You’re both right,” Mom

intervened. A scarlet macaw is a kind

of parrot from South America. See,

it’s right here.” She pointed to the


information on the sign near the

birds.

The family continued along the

path. Further around the bend, they

came to a pair of sleeping tapirs.


“Those look weird!” Robby said.

“Kinda like little hippos, or

warthogs without tusks,” Tommy

offered.

“It’s more of a South American

pig,” Mom commented, looking at the

sign. “This says they’re endangered.”

“That’s why they’re in the zoo,”

Robby said. “To keep them safe.

Soon, the family reached the

farmyard section of the zoo. Raised

in the country, Mom, Daddy, and both


boys were already familiar with farm

animals, but it was still fun to look at

them.

They passed the donkeys first,

and then came to the pigs. Mom was

reminded there of how much she

hated the tendency for digital

cameras to have a slight delayed

reaction when taking pictures.

Between the moment when she

pressed the button and the moment

when the camera took the picture, the


pigs started peeing and the streams

were clearly shown in her pictures.

“Ugh!” she exclaimed when she

saw the picture on the camera’s

viewing screen. She wasn't exactly

happy about the picture, as she had

hoped for a cute picture of the pigs.

“It’s just nature, Honey,” Dad

offered, trying not to laugh. “It’s not

worth getting upset.”

“No,” Mom agreed. “It’s okay.

It’ll make a funny story some day.”


After visiting the pigs, the

family walked through the barn,

seeing the chickens and the barn owl.

“So, why is the barn owl in such

a dark display?” Mom asked the boys.

“Because it’s nocturnal,” Tommy

replied, proud of the big vocabulary

word. “That means it’s awake at night

instead of in the day.”

“Yeah, so the light hurts its

eyes,” Robby added. “It has to stay in

the dark.”

All of the other animals were

outside, so they didn't linger inside

for too long. Back outside, they saw a

black and white striped cow and a

black bull.


“Why are those in a zoo?”

Robby asked. He was confused


because he had lived in farm country

before moving to Michigan, and cows

were commonplace to him.

“Not everyone lives in the

country,” Mom replied. “Some kids

live in the city and never see any farm

animals except in the zoo. I wondered

the same thing the first time I saw a

cow in a zoo when I was in high

school,” she added.

Across the way, they saw

another donkey and a thoroughbred

horse, and then another view of the

donkeys. Across from the

thoroughbred, they saw the

Przewalski's wild horses along with a

number of Canada geese in the same

enclosure.


Next, the family tried to get a

look at the wolverine that was

diagonally across from the two horse

exhibits, and they did see him, but he

was much too quick for the camera to

catch a picture of him.

“We used to have wolverines

where I grew up in Vermont,” Mom

told the boys. “They look small and

cuddly, but they’re really quite vicious


and dangerous if you meet them in the

woods where they really live.”

They worked their way up the

North American area next, wandering

along the winding path, starting with

the fallow deer and white-lipped deer

that shared the enclosure with the

Przewalski's wild horses.

“Per-zu-all-ski?” Robby tried to

sound out the name.

“More like zi-val-ski,” Mom

corrected. It’s a Polish word, so it

doesn’t sound the way you would

expect if it was English.”


“So, they’re Polish horses?”

Tommy asked.

“No, they’re from a part of Asia

called Mongolia,” Mom replied. “See?

The sign says they’re named after a

Russian explorer who discovered

them.”

Across from the deer, the

family saw a bald eagle sitting all by

itself, tethered to a tree.

“Look, Mom,” Tommy said, “it

looks like the one we saw at the zoo a

few years ago, but this one looks

happier and has more space than the

other one.”

Mom smiled. “Yes, it does look

happier and less crowded. This is a

much bigger zoo, so the animals have


more room here than in some small

zoos.”

“The bald eagle is our national

bird,” Robby offered. “My teacher

last year said so. She said it was

almost the turkey, but then they

picked the eagle.”


Mom and Dad chuckled as the

family walked on along the path. They

saw a pond full of wood ducks in the

crane enclosure, but they did not stop

to look at the birds. Soon, they

reached the elk exhibit.

“They look like big deer,” said

Robby, who had seen many deer when

they lived in the country.


“They’re related to deer,” Dad

replied. “Elk are from this part of

the country. We have them in

northern Michigan.”

“Cool!” both boys chorused,

grinning at the elk.

After the elk, the family

visited the absolutely adorable prairie

dogs. They watched with delight as

the large group of furry, little

creatures busily scurried about and

popped in and out of burrows. Tommy

and Robby went into the kids space

activity in a tunnel under the raised

prairie dog exhibit. Before long, their

heads popped up out of a kid-sized

prairie dog hole in the ground. The

holes for children were covered with

clear tubes that allowed the boys to


watch the prairie dogs up close

without risking harm to the children

or the animals. Dad cheerfully took

some great pictures of the boys

looking out of the viewing tubes like

great big prairie dogs.


Once the boys emerged from

the tunnels under the prairie dog

mound, the family went on to visit the

bison. That's another really big

animal. Mom knew they were big, but

she marveled at how she hadn’t


realized the real scope of them until

she saw them in person.

“We learned about bison in

school, too,” Robby said. “My teacher

said they used to be all over the

prairies, but people hunted them so

now they’re endangered.”

Leaving the North American

section of the zoo, they headed next

into the Australian Outback. they

walked all the way along the front of

the exhibit, stopping to take pictures


of the gathering of red kangaroos

that were sleeping under a tree.

Eventually, they came to the entrance

of the exhibit. The sign said it was

supposed to be an adventure trail, so

they went in and followed the path.

They saw the same kangaroos they

had seen from outside the exhibit,

and they saw the wallaby that they

had seen just before they reached

the entrance. There was a little bit

of aboriginal art in the exhibit, but

nothing they had not seen from the

main path.


“The only thing we saw in there

that we couldn’t see from out here

was that emu egg in the plastic jar,”

Tommy complained as the family

walked past the outside of the

Outback exhibit again. No one in the

family was particularly impressed with

the extra walking in the heat, since

they didn't actually see much of

anything extra for their trouble.

After a short break to drink

water from a fountain they found, and


to refill the boys’ dinosaur sippy

bottles with fresh water, they went

on to visit the bear exhibits. They

saw a brown bear that was rescued

from its life as a circus bear, but the

grizzly bears and black bears were

hiding from the sun in the cool of

their caves.

After visiting the bears, they

returned to Africa to visit the animals

that they had missed in the morning.

First, they visited the hippopotami.


“That's another big animal that

I wouldn’t wanna meet outside a zoo,”

Tommy said.

“Yes, it’s pretty impressive,”

Mom agreed. “Look at the sign.

They’re territorial, and can be

dangerous if you go in their area.”

“I learned in school that

they’re related to whales, not

elephants like they look,” Tommy said,

looking impressed.


Around the corner from the

hippos, they found the aardvark

exhibit. They paused briefly, then

they moved on to visit the reticulated

giraffes. The giraffe enclosure was

decorated with beautiful, temple-like

African paintings and sculptures at

the back of the exhibit.


“Why is there an Egyptian

temple in an African exhibit?” Tommy

asked.

“Egypt is part of Africa,” Mom

replied. “In the northern part.”

It took some work to convince

him that Egypt really was in Africa.


After visiting the giraffes and

admiring the artwork, the family

walked past the zebras again on their

way back out of Africa. As they were

leaving the area, they came across a

bronze statue of a baby elephant.


“What an adorable statue!”

Mom cried.

Mom was so taken with the

statue that the family stopped to

take a picture of each the boys with

the baby elephant statue.

“I want to see tigers!” Tommy

announced.

The family passed the rhinos,

the monkeys, and the lion again on

their way to the tiger. Along the way,

they stopped to watch a mother

peahen and her chicks in the middle of

the road.

At the tiger enclosure, each of

the boys wanted a picture with the

tiger statue. Mom was happy to take

the pictures, and then they walked

around to the far side of the


enclosure to get a better look at the

two great cats as they napped. One

tiger seemed irritated, as it kept

twitching its long tail.


“The sign says these are the

biggest kind of cats in the world,”

Robby said.

The main attraction of the trip

was next. The zoo was hosting a

special exhibit called Dinosauria. The

boys had been looking forward to the

dinosaurs for weeks. Tommy, Robby,

and Mom took a sitting break under a

tree while Dad bought tickets for the

family to enter the special exhibit.

They thought we saw an apatosaurus

as they entered the area, but the

DinoTrail Guide that they were given

showed that the only long-necks in the


exhibit were omeisauruses. Walking

along the trail through the exhibit,

they saw the megalosaurus, the

ceratosaurus, a baby stegosaurus as

well as an adult, and a baryonyx that

was spitting water.


Tommy and Robby each got a

picture taken inside a set of dinosaur

ribs at a bend in the trail, and then

the family saw another omeisaurus

that seemed to be having a burping

problem, and a muttaburrasaurus.


They saw an iguanodon, a

euoplocephalus, a pachycephalosaurus,

a parasaurolophus, a dilophosaurus,

and a baby chasmosaurus along with an

adult.

They saw a badly wounded

triceratops with its ribs exposed; it


was still feebly moving its head. They

also saw some of the deinonychuses

that were hunting it across the trail.

We also saw a pair of

deinonychuses locked in mortal

combat, then another omeisaurus,

before we came to the Tyrannosaurus

rex.

“Of course, the dinosaurs are

animatronic, but they’re pretty

realistic,” Mom commented.


At the end of the dinosaur

trail, the family went into the

Dinosaur Digs area and Dad helped

the boys dig in the sand to look for

fossils. Tommy got bored and sat

with Mom for a bit while he sulked

because he was hot and he was getting

tired. Robby was not tired, and he

had to be pulled away from the

digging stations when Dad decided it

was time to go. The family stopped on

the way out of the Dinosaur Digs for

Robby to try controlling a robotic

dimetrodon with a joystick, and then

they exited through the dinosaur gift

shop.

“We’re back to the present!”

Robby announced as they stepped

back out into the main zoo.


The family walked past the

beautiful Rackham Fountain at the

middle of the zoo to get to the takins

and the Bactrian camel.

“Who can tell me how we know

these are Bactrian camels?” Mom

asked.

“Because they have two humps,”

Robby replied.

“Good job!” Mom congratulated

him.


Moving past the camels, the

family crossed through the park area

around the fountain, stopping to

watch a duck swimming above the

glittering coins in the fountain's pool.

Dad explained to the boys about the

custom of tossing coins into fountains

for good luck.

On the far side of the fountain,

they visited the South American area

of the zoo, beginning with the llamas.


Beyond the llamas, they saw the

rhea bird near the guanacos, which

are humpless camels. They were all

getting tired, so they walked on past

a couple of vultures and a flock of

Chilean flamingos, which really looked

very much like the African flamingos.


At the end of South America,

the family saw the tree kangaroo that

they had missed when they had

visited the tapirs earlier in the day.

As they went back down past South

America toward the front of the zoo,

they caught sight of the capybara

swimming in the pond with the Canada

geese.

Dad took Robby into the Holden

Museum of Living Reptiles. Tommy

wanted a break, so he and Mom sat

outside on a bench in the shade.

While they were inside, Dad took a

picture of Robby with a statue of a

snake guarding a clutch of eggs.

After the reptile exhibit, Mom and

Dad took pictures of the boys with a

turtle statue, and Robby got his


picture taken with a couple of

randomly appearing dinosaurs.


The family went into the

pleasantly cool river otter exhibit, but

the otter was hiding inside a hollow


log, apparently asleep. There wasn't

much else to see after a docent let

the boys pet a bit of otter pelt, so

they went on fairly quickly..

As the family approached

Amphibiville, Robby had his picture

taken astride one of a trio of frog

fountains. Tommy was getting more

and more tired, and he didn't want to

play with the fountain because there


were too many other children in the

area. Dad took the boys around to

see the animals in the amphibian

exhibit while Mom sat near the middle

of the open building and watched

them. Mom was getting tired, too.

They all went into the rainforest

immersion gallery together, where

they saw a freshwater stingray, a

turtle, and a sloth. The sloth ducked

down into its hollow tree when Dad

tried to take its picture, so he only

got a picture of the claws on one of

its paws.

“I thought sloths were slow!”

Robby exclaimed. “That one moved

pretty fast!”


On the way out of Amphibiville,

Tommy and Robby posed for pictures

with the leaping frog statue.

After a brief discussion, Mom

and Dad decided that they were all

getting very hot, tired, and sore.

They were hungry, too, and lunch


seemed to have been a long time ago,

so that they wanted to get home to

make supper. They decided that the

Penguinarium would be their final stop

of the day.

Tommy seemed less tired after

Amphibiville, and his mood improved

as they walked. On the way in to the

Penguinarium, the boys posed with the

stone penguin sculpture.


Inside the Penguinarium, the

penguins were cute, but the exhibit

was crowded and there was nowhere

to sit and enjoy the penguins properly.

Mom really wanted to sit down, so

they didn't stay long.

Mom, Dad, Tommy, and Robby

finally headed home. Mom was tired,

and she was grateful that Dad was


doing the driving. It had been a really

fun, wonderful day, and worth a few

aches and pains.

“It was really good to have a

family day for the four of us to spend

together,” she said happily as the van

pulled out of the zoo parking lot on

the way home.


About the Author

Debbie Barry and her husband

live in southeastern Michigan with

their two sons and their two cats.

The family enjoys exploring history

through French and Indian War re-

enactment and through medieval re-

enactment in the Society for Creative

Anachronism (SCA). Debbie grew up

in Vermont, where she heard and

collected many family stories that she


enjoys retelling as historical fiction

for young audiences.

Debbie graduated summa cum

laude with a B.A. in dual majors of

social sciences with an education

concentration and of English in 2013.


Also look for these titles by

Debbie Barry:

Books for Young

Learners: Around the Color Wheel

Colors and Numbers

Stories for Children: A Shattering Experience

Bobcat in the Pantry

Born in the Blizzard and

Freshet

Expressing the Trunk

Gramp’s Bear Story

Meeting with Wolves

The Berry Post

When Mary Fell Down the Well

Writing Competition

Biographical Fiction: The Wrong Race

Wood Alcohol in Carmel


History and

Genealogy: Family History of Deborah K.

Fletcher

Grandma Fletcher’s Scrapbooks

Nana’s Stories

Property Deeds and other Legal

Documents of the Fletcher and

Townsend Families

Property Deeds and other Legal

Documents of the Fletcher and

Townsend Families, 2nd Edition

with Digital Scans

The Red Notebook

The Red Notebook, 2nd Edition

with Digital Scans

Zoa Fletcher’s Photos

Zoa Has Her Way

Debbie’s Art: Debbie’s Vision in Art, Volumes

1-4

Debbie’s Vision in Art (Hard

cover, published by Blurb)

The Heart’s Vision

The Heart’s Vision in Color


Other Topics: A Journey Through My College

Papers: Undergraduate Series

Advantages of Brain-Based

Learning Environments

African Americans in Post-Civil

War America

American Students Are

Crippled By Cultural Diversity

Education

Analyzing The Yellow Wallpaper

A Personal Philosophy of

Education

Debbie’s Writing

Examining Gender in A Doll

House

Identity Within and Without

Indifferent Universe

Loss

More Than Just Monogamy

Nature in Early American

Literature

Picturing The First Writing

Religion and Myth in English

Poetry


Responsibility to a Broader

Humanity

Speech Codes in Education

Symbolic Serpents

The Evil of Grendel

A Visit to the Detroit Zoo

Documents

Transcript of A Visit to the Detroit Zoo