Indianapolis, IN 2026 Part 2: The Zoo!
May. 7th, 2026 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39 **Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
WEDNESDAY
Ended up doing virtually nothing today. The weather was better but I wanted to save energy for the zoo tomorrow, and besides that frankly there's not much of "touristy" interest here that I felt the need to go see.
Instead I put in a lot of time on Foodie Finds and got Knoxville entirely done(!), bought my zoo ticket, scoped out the hotel's guest laundry, and received an Amazon package with my new "leak proof" containers, some baru nuts (used to be available through Whole Paycheck but no longer), and the food thermometer. The "leak proof" containers are disappointing because they are leak-resistant at best, and the sizes are smaller than listed as well (the 1.5 cup container is 1.25 at most.) Should have read the reviews more carefully I guess. Still, it's possible that they'll be leak resistant enough that it won't matter, and the slight size difference may not matter either, so I'll give them a fair chance. I just don't like false advertising.
So yes, all of that excitement plus watching anime and eating snacks. After dinner I got dressed for work and walked to the theater. It's only a 30-minute trek and pretty flat. I got there early intentionally to put some stuff back in my trunk and practice my pedal E on the bass using the video that my friend gave me in Boston.
I also visited The Egyptian Room in this theater and took a bunch of photos, but since I'm going to the zoo tomorrow I'll save those photos for the weekend so as to slightly shorten this post.
The evening show was just fine. This pit is deep and well below the stage, so audience reactions are muffled, but there was extended applause and cheering for "Gaston" so that's good!
------------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY
Up early to eat breakfast before heading to the zoo!
My tactics with both museums and zoos/aquariums, for avoiding large crowds, are as follows:
So far both of these tricks work swimmingly, and today was no exception. For an entire hour I essentially had the zoo to myself. Plus, the animals know the routine too. A lot of them were out stretching or relaxing while it was still quiet.
I started with the Ocean section. A friendly ray:
Lionfish:
There was a very cool dolphin viewing area underneath their pool.
There were other fish, sharks, seahorses, etc. that I didn't photograph. No jellyfish or urchins here that I saw. There was a ray petting pool but I left them alone knowing they were about to be manhandled by busloads of children. Next, some primates. The chimps were not out yet but I saw orangutans and this small monkey (macaque?):
Next, the Desert area. A variety of tortoises. The giant tortoises were still inside but you could view them through windows.
A meerkat standing guard:
That area led into the reptile enclosure. I love reptiles (and insects but they didn't have those here) and was delighted to see a lot of the snakes moving around and active. Most of the constrictor-types were curled up and not visible, but the venomous ones were moving all around. Beautiful!
This one has cloudy eyes and looked irritated, he'll probably shed his skin soon.
This was a spitting cobra. Beautiful and shiny.
This little viper had iridescence in his scales, but I couldn't capture it with my iPhone. Pretty little one.
This one was moving all around, it took a while to get a good photo because he would not sit still!
And this one was SO CUTE. I don't remember what it was but it was in the Indiana Native Snakes display.
I think this was a black mamba, also very energetic and climbing. Look how LONG! (CLICK HERE to watch)
Next was the elephants, two African elephants were out, one was a juvenile.
I saw three white rhinos:
Zebra:
Tiger:
Adorable sleepy lion who rolled over for me. Cuuuuute
Most special of all was getting to actually see a red panda!!! I have been to several zoos that have them, but they have always been sleeping or hiding. This is the first time I've seen one up and walking around. It was from a distance and I had to zoom in a lot, the photos are not good, but it's the best I could do.
By this point I'd been in the zoo for about two hours, and spent another 30 minutes or so looping back to see if there was anything I'd missed. The zoo is under construction currently (they're removing a coaster that used to be in the middle) so some exhibits (kangaroos, giraffes) were closed, and others (aviaries) were not open until later in the afternoon. I decided not to wait around for the aviaries and called it a day, having seen lots of wonderful animals :) Ubered back to the hotel, did my photo editing, had a snack and typed up this post.
After the snack I had an impromptu visit to a walk-in clinic because I've had stomach-or-chest-pain for like four days. It's really centralized on my stomach but as that's right below the sternum, I'm 42, and better safe than sorry especially without health insurance, I hoofed it over there just to rule out a cardiac issue. They didn't think it had anything to do with heart stuff at all (vitals were totally normal) and gave me a GI cocktail which did provide some relief right away, so it's likely just my same old stress-induced GERD or ulcer again. This flares up badly once or twice a year. Grateful that it's not anything worse than that at the moment.
Carpooled in to the theater with Michael (Key 3) and Dane (Flute), and our new in-ears were waiting for us! They look really cool with the customization options that we added, but this weekend we will find out how they SOUND which is WAY more important. Pictures to come in the next post.
The evening show went well, though I felt a bit distracted (when this happens I wish I were a robot, sometimes!)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday: Laundry in the morning (After spending $$$ on laundry in Boston it is SO NICE to be back to $ per load plus doing it myself!!) and no other plans. I will either recoup from Thursday's stomping around, or might go do an explore. One evening show.
Saturday: Two shows but might go get a really delicious-sounding danish from a local place in the morning, we'll see.
Sunday: Picking up a rental car to drive to Madison (they booked us a flight but it's only a 5-hour drive and I like road trips :) ) Two shows.
This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
WEDNESDAY
Ended up doing virtually nothing today. The weather was better but I wanted to save energy for the zoo tomorrow, and besides that frankly there's not much of "touristy" interest here that I felt the need to go see.
Instead I put in a lot of time on Foodie Finds and got Knoxville entirely done(!), bought my zoo ticket, scoped out the hotel's guest laundry, and received an Amazon package with my new "leak proof" containers, some baru nuts (used to be available through Whole Paycheck but no longer), and the food thermometer. The "leak proof" containers are disappointing because they are leak-resistant at best, and the sizes are smaller than listed as well (the 1.5 cup container is 1.25 at most.) Should have read the reviews more carefully I guess. Still, it's possible that they'll be leak resistant enough that it won't matter, and the slight size difference may not matter either, so I'll give them a fair chance. I just don't like false advertising.
So yes, all of that excitement plus watching anime and eating snacks. After dinner I got dressed for work and walked to the theater. It's only a 30-minute trek and pretty flat. I got there early intentionally to put some stuff back in my trunk and practice my pedal E on the bass using the video that my friend gave me in Boston.
I also visited The Egyptian Room in this theater and took a bunch of photos, but since I'm going to the zoo tomorrow I'll save those photos for the weekend so as to slightly shorten this post.
The evening show was just fine. This pit is deep and well below the stage, so audience reactions are muffled, but there was extended applause and cheering for "Gaston" so that's good!
------------------------------------------------------------------
THURSDAY
Up early to eat breakfast before heading to the zoo!
My tactics with both museums and zoos/aquariums, for avoiding large crowds, are as follows:
A) Go right when they open. Most school groups arrive 1-2 hours after opening. The animals know this too and will be out enjoying the quiet while they can. GREAT opportunity to see them uninterrupted!
B) Move from top to bottom/work backwards/counterclockwise when possible. That way you’ll be starting at the opposite end from any large groups, and won’t be moving WITH them through the displays.
So far both of these tricks work swimmingly, and today was no exception. For an entire hour I essentially had the zoo to myself. Plus, the animals know the routine too. A lot of them were out stretching or relaxing while it was still quiet.
I started with the Ocean section. A friendly ray:
Lionfish:
There was a very cool dolphin viewing area underneath their pool.
There were other fish, sharks, seahorses, etc. that I didn't photograph. No jellyfish or urchins here that I saw. There was a ray petting pool but I left them alone knowing they were about to be manhandled by busloads of children. Next, some primates. The chimps were not out yet but I saw orangutans and this small monkey (macaque?):
Next, the Desert area. A variety of tortoises. The giant tortoises were still inside but you could view them through windows.
A meerkat standing guard:
That area led into the reptile enclosure. I love reptiles (and insects but they didn't have those here) and was delighted to see a lot of the snakes moving around and active. Most of the constrictor-types were curled up and not visible, but the venomous ones were moving all around. Beautiful!
This one has cloudy eyes and looked irritated, he'll probably shed his skin soon.
This was a spitting cobra. Beautiful and shiny.
This little viper had iridescence in his scales, but I couldn't capture it with my iPhone. Pretty little one.
This one was moving all around, it took a while to get a good photo because he would not sit still!
And this one was SO CUTE. I don't remember what it was but it was in the Indiana Native Snakes display.
I think this was a black mamba, also very energetic and climbing. Look how LONG! (CLICK HERE to watch)
Next was the elephants, two African elephants were out, one was a juvenile.
I saw three white rhinos:
Zebra:
Tiger:
Adorable sleepy lion who rolled over for me. Cuuuuute
Most special of all was getting to actually see a red panda!!! I have been to several zoos that have them, but they have always been sleeping or hiding. This is the first time I've seen one up and walking around. It was from a distance and I had to zoom in a lot, the photos are not good, but it's the best I could do.
By this point I'd been in the zoo for about two hours, and spent another 30 minutes or so looping back to see if there was anything I'd missed. The zoo is under construction currently (they're removing a coaster that used to be in the middle) so some exhibits (kangaroos, giraffes) were closed, and others (aviaries) were not open until later in the afternoon. I decided not to wait around for the aviaries and called it a day, having seen lots of wonderful animals :) Ubered back to the hotel, did my photo editing, had a snack and typed up this post.
After the snack I had an impromptu visit to a walk-in clinic because I've had stomach-or-chest-pain for like four days. It's really centralized on my stomach but as that's right below the sternum, I'm 42, and better safe than sorry especially without health insurance, I hoofed it over there just to rule out a cardiac issue. They didn't think it had anything to do with heart stuff at all (vitals were totally normal) and gave me a GI cocktail which did provide some relief right away, so it's likely just my same old stress-induced GERD or ulcer again. This flares up badly once or twice a year. Grateful that it's not anything worse than that at the moment.
Carpooled in to the theater with Michael (Key 3) and Dane (Flute), and our new in-ears were waiting for us! They look really cool with the customization options that we added, but this weekend we will find out how they SOUND which is WAY more important. Pictures to come in the next post.
The evening show went well, though I felt a bit distracted (when this happens I wish I were a robot, sometimes!)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday: Laundry in the morning (After spending $$$ on laundry in Boston it is SO NICE to be back to $ per load plus doing it myself!!) and no other plans. I will either recoup from Thursday's stomping around, or might go do an explore. One evening show.
Saturday: Two shows but might go get a really delicious-sounding danish from a local place in the morning, we'll see.
Sunday: Picking up a rental car to drive to Madison (they booked us a flight but it's only a 5-hour drive and I like road trips :) ) Two shows.
