The menu in the restaurant had a long listing of drinks, most of them alcoholic. I wanted the Kookaberry Mojito, just for the name, but since I didn’t like alcohol, I got a passion fruit iced tea. It was yummy. The guys ordered fancy beers.
After our lunch, which probably cost a fortune since it was served inside the jungle with a real waterfall, we met Danny again and continued our zoo tour. My favorite place was the swamp monkey and otter habitat. The two different species were in an incredibly beautiful location with running water and tall trees, and the otters came out and played with the monkeys. The animals were like a kittens or puppies, pawing, kissing, and chasing each other around. I truthfully could have stayed there forever. It was not only great fun to watch, but completely peaceful.
Danny patiently waited for us to return to the tram. When we climbed back inside, he told us that we’d hired him until five-thirty since we’d taken an hour off for lunch, but Timothy shook his head and said, “I think we’ll be done soon. There’s no sense overstaying our welcome with the zoo animals.”
He took a moment to receive my nod. This zoo had all been amazing, but I agreed that we were tired.
With that thought in mind, Danny drove us down Easy Street to Park Way, passing bears and koalas, headed slowly up the path where the big cats were absorbing the sunshine, then stopped at the Panda Trek. Of course, we had to get out there, but we piled back in a few minutes later. Then the lanes wove us around a herd of antelopes and finally stopped at the Polar Bear Plunge. There, the bears were swimming all around in a lake of water. The park had supplied the fluffy white guys with fish, and the polar bears were having a great time selecting their dinner. Watching them was a real treat.
When we finally left the polar bears to their successful fishing, the five of us ate ice cream cones and drank coffee or sodas. Then we thanked Danny for his wonderful job at giving us inside tips and information about the animals, walked over to the Sky Fari and climbed into the bucket ride that went from West to East. It was a great way to look back at all the animals we hadn’t had time to visit, and a review of the ones we had. When we climbed out of our bucket, we were back at the front of the zoo. A short walk later we met up with our hired limo driver.