Monday, February 16, 2004

BBQ and the Zoo

Today is president's day, so as many people do, I had the day off. Being that my wonderful Wife was away at a seminar all weekend this was our day to spend sometime together. And of course the little boy had the day off too! So we planned to go have some serious (Yet not to expensive) fun. So we decided on the Zoo, it was close and fairly cheap. (we thought that before we got there) On the way to the LA Zoo we decided to stop and have lunch at the "Black Cow Cafe" in montrose. It is someplace that we used to eat at all of the time when we lived in pasadena and montrose. Of course we get there and they are closed for presidents day.

<sidenote>It's amazing how irritating it is when a restaurant closes for a holiday. But that it's fine for you to have it off.</sidenote>

So we walked around downtown montrose and found this little place called Zeke's Smokehouse.It looked great and had things on the menu I can eat. (It's amazing how limiting being allergic to wheat is in your food choices) So we thought we would give it a try. It was fantastic! This is just hardcore food, no apologize, no tree hugging vegan entrees! Ribs, Beef Brisket, Meatloaf, Beef and Pork links! It's the first time that I have seen real hushpuppies in southern california. The meal was great! My wonderful wife had the BBQ chicken sandwich, the little boy had the chicken and I had the Beef and Pork links. It was all so good that I kept eating long after I was full.

So now that we are all fed, and in need of a walk. We were off to the Zoo. There was an issue with this, that we didn't know of before we left the house. Everyone else was off to the Zoo too! I haven't ever seen so many people their. You would of thought that they were giving money away. There was a 20 minute line to get tickets. There was a line for everything. Don't get me wrong it was a lot of fun. The little boy was nothing but a kick. He is such a ball of energy. Zooming from here to there to here again. Keep up! He would cry dragging My Wife and I behind him. After a little bit we need a little treat. We weren't really hungry just needed something sweet. So I went to the little Zoo cafeteria there to get some Ice Cream. Now here is where they get you, by the time you have stood in the line long enough to get up to where you can see the prices on the sign you aren't going to leave. So with credit report in hand I was able to finance three small ice cream cones with a fairly good interest rate for the next 36 months. (They told me that my credit score wasn't good enough for three large cones.)

We got to see some skunks, monkeys, deer, elephants, weasels, camels, flamingos, pimps and hoes. (funny enough not all of the creatures listed above where in cages some where walking around the park looking for mates). The hours of the Zoo are officially 10am - 5pm. However I feel these are a little inaccurate. True enough that it opens at 10am. However the closing at 5pm is a little deceiving. What they really mean is that if you are in the park at 5pm find a safe place to sleep because they have closed the gates and left for the evening. Really and truly leaving at 4:50pm is pushing it.

In the end we had fun and it was a good day off. However there were two lessons learned. One never go to the Zoo on a holiday. Two, don't even eat breakfast before you go to Zeke's for lunch.

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