Welcome to today’s blog – steroid-free since 2006!!

Well, we made it to the Calgary Zoo yesterday, as part of our long-weekend “Tourist In Our New Town” experience.

Having been to a zoo or two in our day, and having heard so much pre-attendance buzz, we had high expectations. Didn’t take long to collapse those expectations…

In all fairness, and so as not to prevent you from finding out for yourselves, there are indeed animals at this zoo. You will get to see many varieties of fish, birds, and in one very large compound – a live prairie dog (gopher in some jurisdictions).

Granted, we didn’t start off on the right foot. It took us an hour from parking lot to admission gate, before we even set a tender tootsie on actual zoo ground. By then, it was well past lunchtime, so we sprinted to one of the onsite theme cafeterias, where we waited another hour before we were successful in carrying away a chilled hamburger and some warm pop. Oddly enough, the lineups to get into the joint, and then the eateries where the only places we encountered substantial signs of crowds.

So, two hours of our life gone, we rolled up our short sleeves, put on our pith helmets, and began exploring…

Crikey! Most zoos will warn you that at certain times of day, different animals may or may not be active. In our experience, afternoon may have been the time nurses administer massive tranquilizers to these caged creatures. Any that you were lucky enough to spot were lethargic to about the state of a 12-year old rug. Most animals hid in shady areas, with just a tuft of hair, or prone leg hanging out for us to view. We have some exceptional pictures of feet. You’ll just have to take our word that they belonged to a unicorn or brontosaurus...

I’d like to say that you’ll find animals out-of-the-ordinary at this zoo, but even the Winnipeg Zoo has at least as good a selection of beasts, and last time I was there, you didn’t pay through the nose to see fleeting glimpses of hairy limbs (except maybe in some of the popular bars and clubs there…).

I suppose my advice would be to get to this zoo early (to avoid lineups), and maybe bring a selection of paper sandwich bags, that you could blow up and “pop”, just to awaken something.

Chow for now!!