Ringg! Ringg! Mom picked up the phone. “Hello?†my mom asked. “Hi! This is David’s dad! We’re coming to your house in 15 minutes to the Oakland Zoo in Knowland Park!â€
This was the beginning of my great day.
I woke up and didn’t have any time at all to brush my teeth. I rushed downstairs and ate my breakfast as fast as I could. I finished and waited. And waited. They were late! I rushed upstairs and washed my mouth. Ding Dong! The doorbell sounded. They came! I got my coat and said Goodbye. I hopped into the car and we drove off.
While on the car, Dave* and I got bored. So we got out Dave’s Yu-Gi-Oh cards and dueled. Hey! Wait a sec. We didn’t have a flat surface! Dave got an idea to put my The Ultimate Adventure as the board. Dave’s idea didn’t really work. Since we were on the freeway, the car shook like crazy and the cards slid around. Since The Ultimate Adventure is a book, we just slid them into the book. Vroom! Vroom! We finally got there.
We found a space in the parking lot after like, 1-2 minutes. We walked in and Dave’s mom bought the tickets. Right across the ticket-buying place, there were flamingos and white spoonbills. When we were almost going to leave the flamingo exhibit, 2 ducks flew in. We tried shooing them away, but we were too far. We made loud noises, but only the spoonbills and flamingos heard us. We finally gave up and left. We turned left and saw deer. None had antlers. Probably the males were young, or they were all females, OR the males’ antlers shedded. We got bored and went to the tiger exhibit. Guess what? Only two tigers were there! Dave got the camera and took a picture of a tiger. Then, I spotted a white tiger! It was hiding in a cave. Dave’s mom told us to go on. We continued down until there was a monkey going through a pile of hay. Dave also got a picture of that and went down.
There was the children’s zoo! When you first look at it, it looks like a park. But actually, it was also a zoo. There were turtles and tortoises. They all moved very slowly, despite their large shells. We looked up and there were ring-tailed lemurs. We told Dave’s mom that we were going to go to the lemurs and we ran. Up the stairs, past the frogs and on the sidewalk. We went to the ring tailed lemurs and saw them leaping. We waited for Dave’s parents but they weren’t there so we went to the bats section. We went into the room. There, in a jumbo cage, there were 29 bats. 2 of them were spreading their wings, 2 were “fighting†upside down, and the rest were upside down, wings closed. Then I said “probably your mom is at the lemur exhibit already!†We raced up the stairs and got to the lemurs. Fortunately, the lemurs were still swinging from branch to branch. Unfortunately, Dave’s mom wasn’t there. So we waited. I tricked Dave at thinking that I saw his mom. (Well, I wanted something to do!) Miraculously, I was actually pointing to his mom!
His parents came. We told them about the bats and Susan** wanted to go there. We told her where to go and she (I think) was scared. Then, for some reason, Dave said “Can we explore the zoo by ourselves?â€. Now I don’t know why he said this, but Dave just kept on asking and asking. Reluctantly, Dave’s dad let him go. “But,†Dave’s dad said “Meet us at 12:00 at the entrance.â€
First, we went to a field of waxed turtle shells. I crawled in and pretended to be a turtle. Then, just for fun, I pretended to be stuck. Dave tried pulling me out but I hooked my feet at the end of the shell. Then he tried pushing me out. Then, I hooked my hands to the shell. This time, Dave saw me. We went to a petting zoo, where we brushed goats and horses. Telling the truth, it was a little bittie boring. So we went out and continued. We went to the Monkey exhibit. Since there was a sign to be quiet, and a lot of people were shouting, one of the monkeys actually, well spit on them. We went to the gift shop and I bought a rain stick for Emily***. It was almost 12:00 and we were waiting at the flamingo/spoonbill exhibit. Then, after a few minutes, Dave’s mom came. We went to the other side of the zoo where we saw ferocious lions, mostly male. Then, I spotted a female lion sitting in the corner!
We continued and saw elephants. It was gray, and big, and weird. We saw it crack a tree branch with its mouth and tusk! We also learned that elephants can only have 4 teeth in its mouth and it changes teeth 6 times in its lifetime. Once it has no more teeth, it cannot eat anymore. Some are smarter a go to the riverbank to see if there are plants. If there are it eats the riverbank plants.(They are softer) We also saw some birds, but Dave got bored instantly. We saw giraffes. Brown and red and brown and dark red and black giraffes. There was also a hawk, and an Egyptian duck, and an intruder duck. Just like the same, we tried shooing it away. Still didn’t work. We were a bit hungry now so we ate at the zoo restaurant. I drank root beer and ate fries and a corn dog. It was good! We went out of the zoo where there was a something like a carnival. We bought tickets for the train ride around the zoo. We saw the lions, the bats in the children’s zoo, the giraffes, ect. After the ride, we bought tickets for the merry-go-around. Then we played Yu-Gi-Oh and Dave won. I went to Dave’s house and continued dueling. We also watched some T.V. I came home, and, just like always, today was a great day!
. The surrounding of Paris, the French country side, was also very lovely at early summer, with green fields and sparkling waterways.
