Relaxed. Jared and I hardly ever get "us-time," usually because I'm always on an adventure, or we're both working. Sure, we see each other at work and at home, but the most we have energy for is maybe cooking dinner, watching a show or surfing the web, then bed. The last weekend of August, though, we decided to get away and spend some time together. Wanna guess what we did? Went to see more animals! Once an animal person, alway an animal person.
We checked into our hotel on Friday evening, and started our Saturday morning off at the Dallas World Aquarium, where we wandered along a path lined with plants, countless birds, and a few monkeys. We took our time as we meandered through the crowds of people, working our way along the exhibits until we went down a set of stairs to the aquarium proper. The first thing we saw? A giant window showcasing a pool of water and it's typical inhabitants. We saw a turtles and huge fish, and supposedly there was a manatee as well.
We kept moving through the exhibits, determined to see every single animal in the building. Being Big Cat people, we found this adorable young jaguar that I couldn't stop cooing over, and spent quite a bit of time watching him. Jared also found one of the keepers and we chatted with her for a while about the penguins and general animal care in the building. After walking around the building three times, we finally saw the animal that made Jared the most excited: we saw the manatee! She was adorable, using her flippers to hold her lettuce to her mouth as she munched away on her lunch.
We finally finished our circuits of the aquarium and braved the Dallas traffic to make our way to our next destination: the Dallas Zoo! And can you guess what the first exhibit was? Dinosaurs. Seriously, moving, noise-making robotic dinosaurs. We spent a lot of time in that area, and I'm pretty sure Jared took more pictures of the dinosaurs than actual living animals. I dragged Jared to see more recent relatives of the dinosaurs in the swamp exhibit (Jared hates alligators) and we did a quick circuit of the reptile house before we headed to the outdoor exhibits. Next up: Africa!
The Dallas Zoo is a medium-size zoo, and it's African section is pretty sweet. They've got elephants, zebras, giraffes, lions, and cheetahs, and their exhibit layout was as natural as it could be. There was even an option to feed the giraffes, though neither of us wanted to spend money on it. We managed to walk through the whole zoo in a few hours, and finished with time to spare before closing- even including the time we spent in the gift shop!
Tired from our day of walking, we headed straight to the hotel bar when we got back, and decided to take a swim in the warm end-of-summer evening. We retired to our room, put on a couple movies, ordered room service and settled in to enjoy each other's company. It really was a fantastic weekend, and reminded me to take some time for the both of us to just be together. I'm definitely guilty of getting so caught up in my adventuring that I don't make time for Jared, especially on weekends. I needed the reminder that it's ok to stay close to home, and that I can have just as much fun here as I do when I'm out there.
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