After such a great visit to the Oakland Zoo last month, I thought it would be fun for me, Mama, and R to see their after-dark holiday exhibit. It was wonderfully festive as we walked along and enjoyed the Christmas themed music and lights.
I don’t know if they do this every night, but when we walked up to the entrance there was an opportunity to donate food to the food bank in exchange for free entrance. Unfortunately we didn’t bring any cans, but admission was only $8 per person.
The entire back portion of the zoo was closed off for the evening, which meant that we couldn’t walk by the elephant-ery, but there was a family of ‘phants to greet us at the entrance. Further along, the display of pachyderms continued with an impressive rhino and, my personal favorite animal, the HIPPOPOTAMUS.
The hippo was just one animal in a whole chorus of creatures that twinkled in tune to a Christmas music mix provided by the local 96.5 KOIT radio station. The compilation of songs would probably have been too saccharine for a lot of people, but us three women love the holidays and watched the entire set, while dancing and taking pictures.
Although a wide range of animals was represented, there was still a clear Christmas theme.
We also enjoyed an assortment of birds that were scattered throughout the park.
Even animal-light free areas were radiant with colors.
We had wanted to ride the train, but just as we were going to walk to the station, it started to rain. Instead we ducked into the cafeteria at the entrance and munched on some green onion & bacon fried mac and cheese balls with nacho cheese dipping sauce. Perfect snack for a cold, rainy day.
Although the rain stopped, the conductor said that the train couldn’t safely run with so much water on the tracks, so we took farewell photos of the ‘phants and their reflections before heading back to our car.
As soon as we got the parking lot, a huge torrent of water poured down on us – we finished in the very nick of time! The road from O.Z. back down to civilization is incredibly dark and winding; we were probably going 10 mph when we rolled past the official Zoo Lights sign. I took a few minutes to snatch this blurry shot in between windshield wipers and then we all waved goodbye to my favorite zoo as the hundreds of animal residents slept soundly in the rain.
If you’re interested in checking the lights out, you can still visit O.Z. until January 4.
Happy Lighting,
D
monter au beurre 