I have been working on a surprise for mom for over a month and today was the big day. Last Friday I told mom that I had a surprise for her on Monday and that she wasn’t to plan anything for Monday. I was dying to tell her what the surprise was, but decided that I would just give her a hint about it in the form of a poem. It went like this:
“A wish, a want, a dream come true. A little surprise we have for you. A mask, you may have to wear. But I don’t think you will really care. When you see what it is you get to do.”
I felt pretty confident that she would not guess it from this hint, right away anyway, and I was correct. She mulled it over all weekend, periodically asking me if it was this or if it involved that. Sunday night she asked a question that led me to believe she had figured it out. Since I was already anxious to tell her and after asking her about her question realized she did indeed know, I let her in on the surprise.
I should probably set this up with a little backstory. Mom and Dad have been members of the San Diego Zoological Society for many many years. Their membership provided free entrance into the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park (now called the San Diego Zoo Safari Park). They would go to the Safari Park often, with mom going sometimes daily. Dad had his favorite spot among the poplar trees, away from the crowds of people and mom’s favorite spot was the gorilla exhibit. They would sit in their respective spots for a while, enjoying their morning and then leave before the park became too crowded. Mom loved to watch the gorillas and got to know them quite well, at least from afar. She could tell you stories about each one. She doted over each new baby and marveled at the majesty of Trib, the resident Silverback at the time. When Trib passed away, he was replaced by Winston. Although mom liked him because he was a gorilla, she didn’t care much for him and thought of him as a bit of a wimp. He seemed to let things happen that Trib would never stand for.
Now that you know mom has a fascination with the gorillas, the surprise will make more sense. Back in May when she and I went to the park to see the new baby gorilla, she made a comment that I had to do something about. She said that she had always wanted to see the gorillas bedrooms. The place where they hung out when not on exhibit. I have a friend from high school that has worked at the Safari Park for more than 15 years now so I asked him if he could find out if a behind the scenes tour of the gorilla exhibit was possible. He didn’t think so, but would find out. Last week he told me that it actually was possible and that I just needed to pick a day. I was so excited. He told me that not only could we see the gorillas, but just about any exhibit we wanted. I told him that the gorillas was the main focus, but that anything else they wanted to show us would be gravy. We worked out a plan to have this tour on Monday (today).
Mom, after I told her what the surprise entailed, was very excited. We got to the park at 11am this morning and met up with my friend, who showed us where to park the car and then took us to meet the guy that would be giving us the tour. He was the associate mammal curator and was a super down to earth guy. Turns out that when he was a kid living in this area, he was also fascinated by the park and spurred him into his career. So we hopped into a 4 door Jeep that still had that new car smell and headed off to see some really cool things. First stop was the gorillas. Now, I had imagined that we would get to see where the gorillas are housed and that was about it, but no. After donning a surgical mask and dipping the soles of our shoes into a pan of some sort of germ-b-gone liquid, they sat mom down in a chair about 2 feet from metal bars. A gorilla was on the other side of the bars. That gorilla was Vila, the second oldest gorilla in captivity. She didn’t stay for long though because hearing the doors to this room open, Winston came to check it out and Vila knew to duck out and let the boss have the spot. Winston sat there being fed grapes and popcorn and some sort of cool-aid type drink. Mom was in heaven. She thought this was so cool. That’s probably because IT WAS so cool.
After the gorillas, we saw two 7 month old lion cubs. They were so darn cute, but already very large. Large enough in fact that the keepers no longer enter the enclosure with them. They were very excited to see people and were given some meaty treats. They ran around a bit and played after the treats were gone and they realized there was no more coming. After the lions, we went to see an Indian rhinoceros. Mom fed him celery and some sort of leafy vegetable. He was huge. After the rhino, we stopped to see a baby cheetah who was being raised alongside a puppy. They were both so adorable. They seemed more interested in playing with the humans and the toys than with each other, but apparently puppies and wild kittens make decent playmates. Lastly we checked out the new tiger exhibit and watched a tiger lounge in a man-made river.
The day was so awesome and mom just loved it. I was so happy that I was able to make this dream come true. I have to thank my friend Ron for setting this up and hanging out with us while we got the tour. Also have to thank Andy, the curator, for being so generous with his time. We spent two and a half hours with these guys today and that is… well.. I just don’t have the right words to describe how much I appreciated what they did for my mother today.
So here is a picture and some videos of the gorilla part of the day….
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egn1gCA3y7A&w=560&h=315]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW6OW_thQAI&w=560&h=315]