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Write With Me; Karen’s Essay

Karen Zemek, author of My Funny Dad, Harry and The Zemeks, was kind enough to participate in my writing assignment. Here is a description of a place she knows and loves. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Thank you Karen for taking the time to participate in this assignment and for letting me share your essay with my readers.

ONE OF OUR FAVORITE PLACES

The Cleveland Metropark Zoo is one of my favorite places to go. It is a beautiful place to walk in the Spring, Summer, and fall–not so beautiful in the winter; however, even then it has some charm. I have a yearly membership that cost just $45 which includes free admission whenever we go and can go as often as we like; even parking is free! By being a member, we don’t have to do the whole zoo every time we go if we don’t want to. Often, we’ll just do the Rainforest for an hour in the winter or on a gorgeous day, we may skip the Rainforest and just do the rest of the zoo. I know this zoo like my own backyard since we live just 20 minutes away. (Before I was married, I was only ten minutes away and often used to go by myself because I felt it was a fun, enjoyable, safe place to walk.)

When you first enter the main entrance, you experience both excitement and beauty. The first thing to do is choose a direction to go. There are six choices from which to choose: the Rainforest, Australian Adventure, Waterfowl Lake, African Savannah or take a tram ride to the Primate & Cat Building (and aquarium), or to Northern Trek to see the wolves, deer, camels, bears and sea lions. There are many animals to visit but in between exhibits, many unusual, beautiful flower gardens to enjoy.

In the spring, the animals are usually very active, especially on those first few days when the weather warms up. It’s always fun to see the new baby animals that are born, generally in the spring. Probably the majority of animals are most lively when the temperature is in the 60s to low 70s. This is the best time of year to see the kangaroos jumping along. The animals in the rainforest are more lively too. The otters are playfully chasing each other, the birds are screeching, the anteater is pacing back and forth, the orangutans are climbing on the ropes and sometimes even the boa constrictor is moving along!

In the summer, everything is in full bloom. The concession stands, all the gift shops, fast food places at the Welcome Plaza and interactive exhibits such as touching a shark, feeding the sea lions and Lorikeets are all open. On a hot day, it is a relief to go in the air-conditioned Primate and Cat building to watch the monkeys, the leopards, the lemurs and the fossa or see some very pretty fish. It seems the monkeys are always most entertaining, but I also like watching the cute red pandas and the big, slow tortoises. One of the fun attractions in the summer is people watching–especially the kids really enjoying the animals, including camel rides and the small animal shows. Every day many people descend on the zoo which is located in kind of a valley with residential areas all around it above. This place gets very crowded!

In the fall, it’s always fun to go because the leaves are so pretty and it’s not as hot so we can walk the whole zoo without getting all worn out. The walkway through the woods going up to the Primate and Cat building is my favorite way to go up and down if it’s a nice day. You can look out over waterfowl lake and down on Australian Adventure. One of the most fun things for kids (and me sometimes) to do to is pet the goats or go down the giant slide in the big Yaba tree house.

In the winter, many of the walkways are blocked off as a safety precaution, but they run heated buses in place of the trams. Also, I was very surprised to see the lions more active in the snow than they are in the summer. Australian adventures is closed for the winter, but Northern Trek with the wolves and the bears is very busy. Wolf Wilderness has a rustic little log cabin with a real fire burning in the fireplace where visitors can go to warm up and watch wolves, beavers, a bald eagle, turtles, and fish from inside. Also, to get away from the winter blahs, a visit to the Rainforest is a good idea because it’s always 80 degrees year round. You better wear a hat because you never know when those birds flying above will drop something you don‘t want landing on your hair!

The Cleveland Zoo is a great place for families but also for couples or even singles. Any photographer would find plenty of good shots at the Cleveland Zoo–I usually bring my camera along! To view some pictures I took, go here:
http://www.moblyng.com/watch/eqH44USjMM and http://www.moblyng.com/watch/EwAG4PGezu or at the bottom of www.zemeks.blogspot.com.

Karen and Gerard Zemek
http://karen.pnn.com
www.myspace.com/kzemek
www.myspace.com/gzemek
www.outskirtspress.com/myfunnydadharry
www.zemeks.blogspot.com