 |
| Flamingos - Columbus Zoo |
We hadn't been to the Zoo for a very long time, since the boys were really young. They are 16 and 14 now and I thought it would be nice for all of us to go to the
Columbus Zoo in Columbus Ohio. It's ranked #1 in the Nation so I thought this must be a really big Zoo! We looked up things to do in Columbus, we have been there a few times before (Ohio Deli where my husband won the challenge eating the Dagwood Sandwich,
Schmidt's Restaurant and Sausage Haus in the German Village, and also one time to see John Capurulo stand up comedy.
I looked up tickets and bought them online for $12 each saving $2 each using my AAA card, and 7 for parking. So it cost $55 just to get in the Zoo. I was a little hesitant after thinking about the Zoo, how much I love animals and how over the years I have thought about all the abuse, suffering,etc that they go through, and I thought a Zoo is actually for us to see the exotic animals, in cages for us to view. I thought about this before but it affects me much more now. And I was right, seeing all the animals, so many looked so depressed and the SMALL size of cages and areas they have for animals even BIG ones was crazy! There was quite a variety of animals but not as big as I was expecting. The Aquarium was no where near what I was expecting, although I was comparing it to the Dallas Texas Aquarium which is awesome so maybe that's why.
 |
| This bear broke my heart, just look at how sad it looks :( they need to be put back in the wild or kept in the wild! |
|
|
|
 |
| this bald eagle had hardly any room! There was a net across the top right above it's head :( If people would leave the wildlife alone they could live their life freely like we do! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
After the Zoo we were all hungry and we drove to
Dirty Frank's for Vegan/regular Hot Dogs. Tom said this would be his last meat before starting the plant based lifestyle change. I don't usually eat vegan meat because I don't miss meat at all, but I was excited to try a few of their Vegan hotdogs. First I had the Rockaway Beach which has sweet hot cabbage and carrot mustard slaw, it was very good. The next one I shared with Tom was the Fire on the Rhine which was very hot (spicy) and I loved that, it had spicy sauerkraut grilled with sriracha, chile paste, garlic and onion. Tom also had the West Virginia Dog- coney sauce with creamy slaw & onion and the Chicago dog. The boys had onion rings and fries since neither of them like hotdogs. The prices were good $3-3.50 per dog, $2 for fries and tator tots and $3 for onion rings. I loved the poppy seed buns. The service was great and very quick, the place was packed but we got seated quickly. PARKING IS FREE ON SUNDAYS on the street, I learned that after putting. 50 in the meter since there was nothing about Sundays being free. I knew New York City and Chicago were free on Sundays but wasn't sure about Columbus, lol. I even tried the next day to write them to get my money back but they said no refunds....yes .50 I write about, it's money!
 |
| Me trying to figure out how to get my money back |
 |
| Fire on the Rhine |
 |
| Chicago Dog |
 |
| West Virginia Dog |
 |
| Rockaway Beach |
 |
| Gage & I |
 |
| Graham & Tom |
About 2 miles away from Dirty Frank's we drove to North Market. It was a very cool market with a lot of places to eat. I tried samples of Jeni's sorbert which is vegan, the cherry was the best. My son got a Waffle cone for $5.50 which I thought was a little pricey for the size. They have a lot of very unique flavors. Both Gage and Graham tried the pizza at Clever Crow Pizza and Sarefino's Pizzeria. Gage said the Clever Crow Pizza was the best with a cornmeal crust.
 |
| Graham with his Brown Butter Almond Brittle cone which he really liked the flavor |
|
|
 |
| Being in Ohio with a Pittsburgh Steelers shirt was not a good idea for Tom ha ha so many comments that day. |
.JPG)
