This zoo had a really nice primate collection!
Sea lion show! These animals are always fun to watch
Camel friend I made at the zoo
My first time seeing pandas!
Komodo dragon- forever one of my favorite species
After four very fun days in Memphis,
I’m writing this blog post from my home back in San Antonio. I was going to
make this post yesterday, but after a full final day walking around Memphis,
and having to be up early this morning to catch a flight, I decided to hold off
and do it today.
As I
mentioned in the last post, our plan for the last day in Memphis was seeing the
zoo. After having breakfast down in the hotel lobby and heading back up to the
room to grab a few things, we called an Uber and headed off for the Memphis
Zoo, one of only four zoos in the US that has pandas! I’d never seen pandas
before, so I was definitely very excited to cross that off the bucket list.
We got to
the zoo at about ten o’clock- we definitely picked the best day of our trip to
do the zoo! The weather was really nice- sunny, breezy, warm but not humid. It
turned out to be a really nice zoo, and not just because of the pandas. The
Memphis Zoo has a really impressive primate collection, including gorillas,
orangutans, gibbons and more. The enclosures for them are really nice, very
open and filled with places for them to climb and play on. They also have a
decent reptile collection, including several Komodo dragons (one of my
favorites!). There’s a tram that goes all around the zoo, and we got two all
day passes for it, which was really nice because it meant we could hop on and
off whenever we wanted to. It was a really relaxing and peaceful way to get
around and just see the zoo.
Not long
after we got there, the tram driver let us know that the sea lion show was
coming up, and we decided to get out and see that. We haven’t had seals or sea
lions at the San Antonio Zoo for quite a while, but seeing the group of them
there in Memphis definitely reminded me of visiting Seal Island and watching
the keeper connections when I was really young.
We did a lot
of walking around exploring this new zoo throughout the rest of the morning,
including stopping by the camels, which, unexpectedly, was one of my favorite
parts of the zoo. The zoo actually offers camel rides, and though we chose not
to partake in that, the keeper did bring the camel right over to us at the gate
so we could see, touch, and get some close up pictures of. There was also a
female camel off to the side of the exhibit, which the keeper told us was
pregnant. I’d seen camels at a couple of other zoos before, but I’d never been
that close to one, and being that close to them reminded me of something I’d
forgotten- camels are really big animals! I know it sounds obvious, but it’s
something I don’t think you can fully understand until you’re up close with
them.
After
hanging out with the camel and his keeper for a while, we moved on to the
pandas. Yes, they are just as cute in person as they are in pictures. There
were two in separate indoor exhibits- one just laying down right in front of
the glass, the other munching on some bamboo shoots. We stayed around the
exhibit for a good length of time, taking lots of pictures and some video of
them.
After eating
lunch at one of the restaurants within the zoo, riding the tram around some
more, going through the reptile house, and making one last stop at the gift
shop, we decided we’d seen the large majority of it, and were ready to go back
to the hotel for a while. We’d spent over four hours walking around exploring
the zoo, and I think there may have been a few things that we missed, but we
got a good look at most of it. Definitely a zoo I’d recommend checking out!
After
relaxing in the hotel for a while, we decided to have our last dinner in
Memphis at a place four of five people had recommended to us. When one of the
Uber drivers told us about Rendezvous, they said, “It looks kind of weird from
the outside, because you have to walk down an alley to get to the entrance.
Just trust me, if you give it a chance, it’s delicious.”
When we got
dropped off, we saw what they’d meant. The entrance to the Rendezvous really is
right in the middle of a back alley. You can immediately tell it’s a barbecue
place- the entire area smells like cooking meat. From the outside, you’d never
guess how big the restaurant is. Right inside the front doors, there are stairs
leading down- yes, most of the restaurant is underground. Once you get down
there, though, it’s a really big space. There are several seating rooms going
pretty far back- even though it was a pretty busy night, we got seated
immediately. I ordered the ribs, which are made with a dry rub instead of a
sauce. I don’t think I’d ever had barbecue that was just dry rub before, and I
honestly wasn’t sure I’d like it, but decided to give it a chance. When the
waiter brought the plate to me, he pointed to two bottles of sauces that were
already on the table and said, “That one’s hot sauce, and the other one’s mild
sauce. But try it dry first, before you add sauce.” I was glad he told me that,
because as soon as I took a bite, I could tell that it didn’t need any extra
sauce. It was a great way to wrap up our trip.
Well, like I
said, I’m writing this post from back home. I planned this trip very
spontaneously- I went from just being in a mood to plan a trip to actually
having the flights booked within two hours. I’ve certainly never done that
before, and I don’t regret it at all. It was a really fun four days in Memphis,
and I’m definitely glad that I made these spur-of-the-moment plans. Memphis,
thanks for keeping my wanderlust at bay for now. You’ve been a lot of fun. This
post’s food for thought: “Quit hanging onto the handrails. Let go. Surrender.
Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day.”- Melody Beattie
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