Lowry Park Zoo with Tian July 24, 2009

Tian is a good friend of mine. He was a student in my Kindergarten class last year, his father is my pastor and I work with his mom. I had the privilege, recently, of spending the day with Tian and my girls at Lowry Park Zoo, while Tian's mother took care of his big sister, Emily, who had her wisdom teeth pulled.

The very moment I mentioned going to the zoo, Tian informed me he didn't want to go on "The Alligator." "The Alligator" is Gator Falls, a water flume ride at the zoo. But it's not just any water flume ride. Gator Falls may be the smallest flume ride in existence. I've seen bigger flume rides in back yards, powered by garden hoses. Of course, I reassured Tian that if he didn't want to go on "The Alligator" he didn't have to. There are many other things to do at Lowry Park Zoo.

I gave my girls a quick-yet-stern lecture about enjoying the other rides and exhibits and how we wouldn't want our friends to go on a ride without us and that we can ride Gator Falls some other day. They did make a few comments throughout the day, usually thinly veiled attempts to convince Tian that he did, in fact, want to go on Gator Falls. In general, though, they let it go and enjoyed the day.

Feeding the Sting Rays was a big hit - after I explained that the stinging part of the ray had been removed. Tian, Brooks and Madison reached in to touch their wings as the rays glided past. The rays expected to be fed, so they came to the side and splashed us, hoping for a morsel. All three kids wanted to feed the rays, so we bought a dish of fish parts. We stood next to the tank and contemplated holding the food at the bottom of the pool while the rays surged forward to take the fish from our fingers with their teeth. We contemplated that for a while, and then we just dropped the food in and let the rays came to the surface to find it, which was pretty cool and not as scary.

We saw the alligator exhibit, too. The actual reptile alligators. They were out sunning and there were eight of them. "No, nine!" "Eleven!" "And there's a big one in the back corner!" It was kind of like being on safari, trying to find them all, if not for the eight-foot wall surrounding the enclosure and the 72 kids on a field trip with a summer camp who were also finding alligators. "Twelve!"

There was a man cutting down a tree, which you usually don't think of as a zoo exhibit, and I admit wasn't an official attraction. A bunch of zoo people stood around in khaki clothes, talking to each other about better ways to cut down a tree, while one man - who was tied to the tree - used a chainsaw to cut the tree. The top section of the tree was held by a cable connected to a crane. When the tree was severed, the top portion swung free and the man ducked out of the way just in time - while holding a running chainsaw. The kids may only be 7, 8 and 9 years old, but they know danger when they see it. It was awesome.

We went to the aviary and saw bats asleep in a dark corner. As cool as I thought that was, the big hit in the aviary was the row of hanging plastic chains that allow people to come in and out, while discouraging the birds from attempting escape. Tian absolutely loved going back and forth through the chains, so we did that for a mind-numbingly long time.

In the children's zoo area Madison and Tian rode a little roller coaster together. Tian screamed at the top of his lungs EVERY SINGLE MOMENT that the ride was in motion. When they came off I asked Tian if he was afraid and he said "no." I asked why he was screaming so much and he said, "Maddie told me to." I looked at Maddie for an explanation. She just smiled. I told Tian, "You don't have to obey Madison." He just smiled.

Summer in Florida is hot, of course, so the kids used the heat as an excuse to play in the water area and within minutes they were drenched. And once Tian was wet, he didn't mind getting wetter, so he said, "Can we go on 'The Alligator?'" Oh, the joy! By the looks on my girls' faces you would have thought it was Christmas morning, or that they were allowed to get a puppy, or that I let them go to bed without brushing their teeth.

We immediately set off, negotiating for prime seating. Maddie wanted to ride all by herself, but Brooks was worried that Maddie would somehow be injured. If she absolutely had to ride with us, then Maddie only wanted the front spot. Brooks wanted to sit next to me and next to Tian. Tian decided that the seats in the back were where the riders get the wettest (he was right), so he wanted to be in the front, too. I wanted to sit at a shady bench and read.

Maddie climbed in first, hurrying to the front. Tian scrambled in, but somehow ended up facing backwards in the back of the boat. Brooks was concerned that they were in but we were not, so she tried to hold on to the boat and me, while simultaneously insisting that Tian turn around and move to the front and whining at me to please, get in, get in, get in! We finally settled into our seats as the ride approached the end of the loading area at what felt like a glacial inch-per-minute.

And then... wait for it...another 4 inches...wait for it... oh, for goodness' sake...we were off!

We have some flume ride experience. We've done Splash Mountain at Disney, which winds through an animatronic telling of the Uncle Remus stories, has a few small falls, and ends with a 50 foot drop into Brer Rabbit's briar patch. It's the girls' favorite Disney ride and takes a full 8 minutes from beginning to end, not counting, of course, the 75 minutes of waiting in line to get on the ride. The Tidal Wave at Busch Gardens seats 24 people per boat, winds through African-themed villages, complete with basket weaving huts and lush landscaping, and takes about 4 minutes.

Gator Falls is, as I've mentioned, small. You can see the entire thing from any one place on the ride. Aside from a few signs "Waterfall Ahead!" painted on artificially weathered wooden planks, there's no attempt to create a theme. I can only assume that the word "Gator" is in the name of the ride because so many University of Florida supporters enjoy the ride. There certainly aren't any actual alligators, fake, painted or otherwise, anywhere near the ride. It also takes 4 minutes, but the first two are spent on the conveyor belt in the loading area and there's another full minute on the conveyor belt that brings you to the top.

Two things, though, that do compare with the other flumes. First, the deluge of water upon hitting the bottom. We were soaked from head to toe, from t-shirt to underwear, in a split-second. So quickly, in fact, that I didn't have time to close my mouth and I swallowed a few ounces of that disgusting recycled-through-the-ride-all-day water.

Second, of course, is the drop. The last 4 seconds of the ride are fun and thrilling and stomach-tickling. The girls like to try to keep their hands up high and I just smile as I hear them scream and laugh. Tian said he liked it and even wanted to do it again, so we did.

It wasn't until we looked at the souvenir photos that I saw exactly how thrilling the ride was for Tian. The photo speaks for itself and I'll let it tell the last thousand words of this blog entry.

Enjoy.