Tulsa: Part II

I left off, blog-o-sphere, with us heading back to the hotel in downtown Tulsa after the beer hall.

The next day, Sunday, was my actual birthday, and I got some lovely presents from Doug after we woke up (DVDs of The Hunger Games and Mystery Team, and the game Settlers of Cattan). 

We found brunch at a place called Queenie's in a fancy shopping area called Utica Square.  Brunch itself was a nice taste of New Mexico--we both had breakfast burritos with green chile and black beans--and afterward it just happened to be when the stores opened, so I got to visit Anthropologie, one of my favorite stores of all time (which we don't have in Walmart Country). 

Our afternoon was spent at the Tulsa Zoo. Awhile back we purchased a Living Social (the Groupon knockoff around these parts) deal for the Tulsa Zoo which included a "zooper pass."  Neither of us remembered what that was, but it turns out it was an all-day pass for the little train that ran around the zoo, a souvenir cup and admission onto the carousel.  Here's the train:

Yes, the train has some tiger-print.  We rode the train around the zoo to the Sea Lion area and watched a short presentation about Sea Lions. I can now tell you how Sea Lions are different than seals, and I can also tell you that I like otters more than I like sea lions.

The short version is that we went to a zoo, so we walked around and looked at animals.  I think I've been spoiled in the zoo-world, growing up going to Minnesota Zoo and Brookfield Zoo, because I was not super impressed with the Tulsa zoo.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, but the animals were kind of old and pretty lethargic, and I didn't get to see any sea otters or penguins. 

For some reason it was an Elebration, so we made sure to go to the elephant show.  I can say that I haven't thought much about elephants before, but I noted (a) they looked really happy (elephant smiles are cute!) and (b) trunks are really awesome but kind of creepy. 

At the end of the day, we decided to ride the carousel before leaving the zoo, even though there were really no other adults riding on the animals.  I chose an Ostrich and Doug nabbed the zebra next to me.  It must have been fated, because the song we heard on our round-and-round trip was the classic Rockapella song Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, which we both knew most of the lyrics for.  So there were two early/mid-thirties people riding on ridiculous animals singing Rockapella at the top of our lungs.  The elderly fellow who ran the carousel was laughing at us, and I like to think we made his day.

We filled our souvenir cups and drove back to town, picking up Village Inn pie and KFC for dinner on the way home, where the cat had not actually ruined anything!  We spent the evening watching The Hunger Games on DVD, which I liked even more the second time around.

All in all, it was a fabulous birthday adventure.