A Naw-fok Birthday

I love zoos.  I can't think of many things I like better than to visit a new zoo and when I get bored in class sometimes I start looking at different zoo websites and reviews planning my next trip.  Since my birthday is on Veteran's day I always had the day off from school.  Each year we would get up early, go to Shoney's breakfast buffet (amazingly delicious), and drive to the NC Zoo in Asheboro.  In 2011 the zoo trip had to be rescheduled to the twelfth as I was busy getting engaged on the 11th.  Since Kristin and I have been married we have started taking trips to visit different zoos.  Together we had been to the NC Zoo, the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia SC (probably my favorite yet), the Knoxville Zoo, Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and the Maui Ocean Center Aquarium (I like aquariums almost as much as zoos).  Since I had just started school and Kristin a new job this year, a big trip to visit a faraway zoo was not an option.  I was therefore delighted to find that there is a Zoo in Norfolk (Naw-fok for the locals) and that it is only 2 hours from Greenville.  My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year and apparently ECU does not care about our veteran's or my birthday because school was in session and in fact I had a test the day of and the day after my birthday so  the trip had to wait until the following weekend.
Saturday morning we packed up, swung through the Burger King drive through (alas there are no Shoney's left in the area), and made our journey north.  It was a really pretty trip and we soon arrived in Norfolk.  It is a small zoo, but a really cool one.  The zoo sits right on the water off of the Chesapeake bay and has a nice easy to walk layout.  There were several animals I had never seen before, and a really neat miniature train like the one in Pullen Park called the Norfolk Southern Express.  It was nice to ride around a get a commentary on several of the exhibits. 

All Aboard the Norfolk Southern Express

Meerkat Observation Platform

Some of the animals new to me were a Moon Bear and a Sun Bear, and Watusi Cows.

Watusi Cows just before epic fight with Rhino

There was also a really cool red panda exhibit in a tree that you can walk under and see the pandas playing right above you.  The coolest thing we saw was the Elephants getting a bath and tusk scrub down in these cool elephant garage bays. 

Scrub a dub dub elephant in the tub

Animals to beware of though are the Brass Rhino, frisky turtles, the four eyed Tapirs, and overly friendly armadillos.

Over a hundred years old, but still kicking

Enough Said

Come closer  so I can give you leprosy

After finishing at the zoo we set out to explore Norfolk a little.  We walked through a pretty downtown section with historic houses and cobblestone streets right on the Chesapeake bay. 

We also went through the Nauticus Naval museum and saw the Battleship Wisconsin.

Cool Naval Museum in the Chesapeake Bay

U.S.S Wisconsin

There was a park on the bay right next to the Nauticus museum and you could look across to where they were building naval ships.

On the way home we kept passing miles of cotton fields and Kristin decided that she needed to pick some to take home with her.

It was one of my favorite birthday trips ever and we are planning to go back and spend more time touring the city and hopefully the naval shipyards.