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crossover_chickWent out and had a very fun day at Southwick Zoo! We had a worrying moment this morning when it started pouring while we gassed up the car and my parents got some money from the ATM, but we ended up driving out of that, fortunately. The weather at Southwick mostly behaved itself -- it rained once during the early afternoon, and kept looking threatening afterwards, but for the most part it was either sunshiney or pleasantly cloudy (Mom compared it to fall weather).
Southwick itself was definitely an all-day experience -- there's a LOT of animals to see, and you've got to double-back a lot on yourself to make sure you don't miss anything. They've got lions, tigers, rhinos (a lady pair named Thelma and Louise XD), wallabies, red kangaroos, macaws, whooping cranes, all sorts of monkeys, a few different kinds of lemurs, a capybara, tapirs, elk, goats (which you can feed in a special goat pen -- Mom and I went in and got almost attacked by overeager goats XD), deer (which live in a forest area where you can ALSO feed them -- we didn't have any change for the machines, but we gave them some corn we found on the ground), cheetahs, chimps -- all SORTS of stuff. I think my favorite exhibit was the white-handed gibbons, though -- mostly because you had a very active mommy and baby swinging around being adorable. :) Actually, there were a LOT of baby animals at the zoo -- they had little "birth certificate" signs up all over the place. It was fun to examine the exhibits and try to spot them (the baby ring-tailed lemur was SO TINY! They actually had warning signs saying it could get out of the enclosure and not to touch it if it did).
In addition to the animals, there were little playgrounds for the smaller kids, a Rainforest Maze, and a couple of rides. We got combo tickets, which got us wristbands that let us have a free go on the Maze, and free rides on the Skyfari (an aerial "tram" -- you know, two seats hanging from a line -- that goes around a pretty good-sized portion of the park, allowing you to see all the animals and such from the air) and the Woodland Express Train (actually another tram shaped like a train that drives around a forested area with the elk and a big pond with local critters. Which includes beavers -- we saw a tree that they were in the process of gnawing down). We gave the Maze a try -- you had to find animal statues in the maze while scanning a special card they gave you, then find your way out. Depending on your time, you got a different title and sticker -- we all made Rainforest Ranger, with a time of roughly eleven minutes each. It was really fun, and a proper maze too! :) We also took a trip on the train (very relaxing) and two trips on the Skyfari (super fun, and it's awesome looking at the zoo from above). If you're ever in Massachusetts, I can totally recommend hitting this zoo!
Er, with one small caveat -- you might want to eat at one of the snack stands instead of the restaurant we tried, Galliford’s Restaurant & Tavern. The food quality was fine, admittedly, though their portion sizes are a bit out of whack -- my parents ordered turkey burgers, while I got a crispy chicken and bacon ranch sandwich. When the food came out, MY PIECE OF CHICKEN WAS BIGGER THAN THE BURGERS. Seriously, it was this huge SLAB of chicken sticking WAY out from the bun. O.o We ended up having to cut a pretty significant chunk off. But the main problem is the service -- once we found our way into the place and got seated, it took ten minutes for a waitress to get to us -- on a NOT very busy day. There were people getting served around us too. We never got any waters, and the waitress we had only took our order, dropped off the food, then cleared plates and dropped off the check -- never checked in on us. We had to flag down someone else to get mayo for Mom's burger (which came with no condiments, and the only one we had on the table was ketchup). Basically, if you go there, prepare to wait. Like I said, the food is fine (they had the good fries), but don't eat there if you're in a hurry. No complaints about the ice cream place we went to shortly afterwards, though -- sugar cone of Campfire S'mores flavor, om nom. :)
So yeah, that marred the experience slightly, but we still had a lot of fun. Even came home with some souvenirs -- two little Kenyan rhinos sculptures (one of wood, one of stone). All in all, a very good day out. :)
Evening was just fine, if less eventful. :p Got my writing done on Chapter 4 of "Fixing You" -- edited the Victor/Alice fight scene, which made me sad. :( It's brief, but I never like writing them fighting. Fortunately them making up comes pretty quickly too. . .even if it also comes with Victor being too afraid to tell Alice what's really bothering him. *sigh* Wouldn't have a plot if he fessed up too early. . .
Also watched Helloween's latest Vampyr set -- the morgue has been cleared out of Skals (which apparently are ghoulish things made by inexperienced vampires), and the serum the hospital needs created. Now Jonathan has to figure out how to stop a scandal with one of the Pembroke's main benefactors. Easy, right? A couple of sidequests have also been completed (one without even properly triggering it because Helloween didn't talk to the guy until AFTER he already had the item he needed XD), and we're currently working a new one that involves helping out a suicidal patient. This game be a bit dark, yo. It's good, though -- I like the atmosphere and the environment, and Reid's a likeable character (at least how Helloween's playing him). Though it is a bit amusing to see Jonathan going on about the temptation to drink blood to get stronger when he JUST chomped on some ghouls to refill his blood meter in combat. I guess the idea is that he's resisting the urge to gulp down anyone who isn't actively trying to kill him, which good for him, but I think that could have been phrased a bit better in-game.
And since then it's just been the usual catch-up and cleaning out the inbox. Another semi-early day tomorrow -- mall trip for me! Kimball Farms is still on as well, though it's been moved to Friday -- Mom pointed out it would probably be good to have a "rest" day in between. And then Saturday has no plans, and Sunday is Canobie Lake Park! And then Monday back to work. Meh.
Well, that's not for a while yet. I'm gonna go ahead and take care of my final e-mails. Night all!
Southwick itself was definitely an all-day experience -- there's a LOT of animals to see, and you've got to double-back a lot on yourself to make sure you don't miss anything. They've got lions, tigers, rhinos (a lady pair named Thelma and Louise XD), wallabies, red kangaroos, macaws, whooping cranes, all sorts of monkeys, a few different kinds of lemurs, a capybara, tapirs, elk, goats (which you can feed in a special goat pen -- Mom and I went in and got almost attacked by overeager goats XD), deer (which live in a forest area where you can ALSO feed them -- we didn't have any change for the machines, but we gave them some corn we found on the ground), cheetahs, chimps -- all SORTS of stuff. I think my favorite exhibit was the white-handed gibbons, though -- mostly because you had a very active mommy and baby swinging around being adorable. :) Actually, there were a LOT of baby animals at the zoo -- they had little "birth certificate" signs up all over the place. It was fun to examine the exhibits and try to spot them (the baby ring-tailed lemur was SO TINY! They actually had warning signs saying it could get out of the enclosure and not to touch it if it did).
In addition to the animals, there were little playgrounds for the smaller kids, a Rainforest Maze, and a couple of rides. We got combo tickets, which got us wristbands that let us have a free go on the Maze, and free rides on the Skyfari (an aerial "tram" -- you know, two seats hanging from a line -- that goes around a pretty good-sized portion of the park, allowing you to see all the animals and such from the air) and the Woodland Express Train (actually another tram shaped like a train that drives around a forested area with the elk and a big pond with local critters. Which includes beavers -- we saw a tree that they were in the process of gnawing down). We gave the Maze a try -- you had to find animal statues in the maze while scanning a special card they gave you, then find your way out. Depending on your time, you got a different title and sticker -- we all made Rainforest Ranger, with a time of roughly eleven minutes each. It was really fun, and a proper maze too! :) We also took a trip on the train (very relaxing) and two trips on the Skyfari (super fun, and it's awesome looking at the zoo from above). If you're ever in Massachusetts, I can totally recommend hitting this zoo!
Er, with one small caveat -- you might want to eat at one of the snack stands instead of the restaurant we tried, Galliford’s Restaurant & Tavern. The food quality was fine, admittedly, though their portion sizes are a bit out of whack -- my parents ordered turkey burgers, while I got a crispy chicken and bacon ranch sandwich. When the food came out, MY PIECE OF CHICKEN WAS BIGGER THAN THE BURGERS. Seriously, it was this huge SLAB of chicken sticking WAY out from the bun. O.o We ended up having to cut a pretty significant chunk off. But the main problem is the service -- once we found our way into the place and got seated, it took ten minutes for a waitress to get to us -- on a NOT very busy day. There were people getting served around us too. We never got any waters, and the waitress we had only took our order, dropped off the food, then cleared plates and dropped off the check -- never checked in on us. We had to flag down someone else to get mayo for Mom's burger (which came with no condiments, and the only one we had on the table was ketchup). Basically, if you go there, prepare to wait. Like I said, the food is fine (they had the good fries), but don't eat there if you're in a hurry. No complaints about the ice cream place we went to shortly afterwards, though -- sugar cone of Campfire S'mores flavor, om nom. :)
So yeah, that marred the experience slightly, but we still had a lot of fun. Even came home with some souvenirs -- two little Kenyan rhinos sculptures (one of wood, one of stone). All in all, a very good day out. :)
Evening was just fine, if less eventful. :p Got my writing done on Chapter 4 of "Fixing You" -- edited the Victor/Alice fight scene, which made me sad. :( It's brief, but I never like writing them fighting. Fortunately them making up comes pretty quickly too. . .even if it also comes with Victor being too afraid to tell Alice what's really bothering him. *sigh* Wouldn't have a plot if he fessed up too early. . .
Also watched Helloween's latest Vampyr set -- the morgue has been cleared out of Skals (which apparently are ghoulish things made by inexperienced vampires), and the serum the hospital needs created. Now Jonathan has to figure out how to stop a scandal with one of the Pembroke's main benefactors. Easy, right? A couple of sidequests have also been completed (one without even properly triggering it because Helloween didn't talk to the guy until AFTER he already had the item he needed XD), and we're currently working a new one that involves helping out a suicidal patient. This game be a bit dark, yo. It's good, though -- I like the atmosphere and the environment, and Reid's a likeable character (at least how Helloween's playing him). Though it is a bit amusing to see Jonathan going on about the temptation to drink blood to get stronger when he JUST chomped on some ghouls to refill his blood meter in combat. I guess the idea is that he's resisting the urge to gulp down anyone who isn't actively trying to kill him, which good for him, but I think that could have been phrased a bit better in-game.
And since then it's just been the usual catch-up and cleaning out the inbox. Another semi-early day tomorrow -- mall trip for me! Kimball Farms is still on as well, though it's been moved to Friday -- Mom pointed out it would probably be good to have a "rest" day in between. And then Saturday has no plans, and Sunday is Canobie Lake Park! And then Monday back to work. Meh.
Well, that's not for a while yet. I'm gonna go ahead and take care of my final e-mails. Night all!
