In Tampa, FL we have the Lowery Zoo a mile from the house. Rose had a yearly pass, which meant I got in free as a guest. We used to walk up there all the time. This zoo sold beer, in fact, made a big deal out of it. You could get a Lowery Zoo beer mug that had colored light flashing out of it. Once you got your mug, draft beer was only $3.00. In the evening you would see everyone walking around having a beer and flashing away. The Oregon Zoo does not seem to sell beer, which may be the ONLY place in Portland that doesn't.
The Oregon Zoo, as does Lowery, has "Zoo Lights". The zoo is all done up with Christmas Lights. Makes a nice evening stroll, rain or shine, of course it was raining. Again, the rain stopps no one the line was long on a Wednesday evening.
At the Lowery Zoo, Sister Susan would often join us for Zoo Boo on Halloween and the Zoo Lights at Christmas. The Zoo Boo was really great - a haunted house the size of a zoo. I hope they do that out here.
Getting there is half the fun...
One of the good things about a large city like Portland is the public transportation. This helps offset the worst traffic I have ever seen. Save yourself and don't even think about getting on the main roads at rush hour. You will go faster watching Miami Vice on Netflix siting in your favorite chair. I've seen the entire series at least 10 times, buy now.
We checked the Tirmet App and walked up and caught the bus into the center of town Pioneer Square - Portland's Living Room... so they call it. They actually have pillow fights here in the summer and thousands of people come out in the PJs with pillows and brawl. Now that is a fun city! 15 minutes to town on the bus. Oh man, this young women was on the phone chatting away to someone about where she had been, where she was going, and what job she wanted. It was rather interesting, Nepal, Africa, Alaska, Portland, maybe try the Peace Corp - nice to be young and traveling the world - wait, that is what I did - over 40 countries so far...
So we got into the city and wait for the Blue Line Train to the Zoo. OK, here is a picture of it arriving.
Bike Commuters Everywhere - They really do ride in this city, night, rain, "All Weather".
Got the train heading west, totally packed with commuters and cruised along. The zoo is has a stop, but they don't call it 'Zoo Station', in fact it is not mentioned at all. So on the way I made a general announcement to the train, "We are going to the zoo does anyone know what station it is". "This one", a guys says, shit, jump off. It is Washington Park Station, by the way. So we wondered around the station, no sign for the zoo, so I asked a guy and we went with him.
We got into an elevator, a really big one. I went to push the button to go up and the two choices were T and S. The guys said "Push S for Surface, we are 260 feet underground". That is a 28 story building underground. We shot up and 25 seconds later were On The Surface. Later on the way back down we were almost weightless with the drop. The elevator shows you how far underground you are in feet, but spins so fast you can't read it when moving. As it turns out, the Washington Park Station is the deepest station in North America and one of the deepest in the world - a surprise at every venture around this city.
Oregon Zoo.
Admission, they give us a $3 discount for using public transportation, we didn't have to pay $4
for parking, and had more fun getting their than driving, so taking public transport was worth it.
The zoo has two cool trains, which we are saving for another trip. The lights were great, especially how they setup animations of animals hunting, flying, turning from caterpillars to butterflies - much better than the usual static displays.
As it was night, most of the animals were not out. We did see some of the usual zoo animals though, elephants, monkeys, fish, snakes, blondes, brunets, and red heads...
Rush hour over, we had an easy trip on the train, bus, and short walk home.
Captain Dave
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