The day I fell in love with goats lol! If this guy wasn't in my lap he wasn't happy. Ugh, and those crazy eyes. I wanted to keep him forever. Actually, he is a main reason I always want to go back to Ohio. "Gary" as I like to call him, lives in the Petting Zoo portion of the Columbus Zoo.

Fun Fact #1- Jack Hanna, who had his own show "Into The Wild" & was on David Letterman countless times, is the Director of the Columbus Zoo

Columbus Zoo is always in the Top 5 in the US. I am kind of spoiled coming from a Top 5 Zoo to another one in San Diego. Here are a few more of Gary :)


I don't care what he smelled like he was my friend!

Another part of the Zoo that is awesome is a huge pool where you get to feed Stingrays. What's crazy is they have SO much personality. They act like puppies. There mouth's are on the bottom so when you feed them they swim over top of your hand and it feels like the sucker part of a vacuum as they are eating.

So below is the video of my wife scared to death to feed them. I of course fed the biggest one in the pool which was like the size of a plastic kiddie pool. Huge. You can't see it in the video but the babies still had their stingers which was a little dangerous.

Next was the Lorikeet Exhibit. These birds are uber friendly especially when they give you food. Pia was making fun of what ugly birds I was attracting until this one landed on her paw lol. Talk about premature balding.

The birds kept landing on the back of my neck and, with and in and out motion, proceeded to lick attack my neck. So GROSS.

What's so gross about it is also Fun Fact #2. They have what is known as the "Weirdest Tongue in Nature." It is a highly specialized tongue that is used to extract nectar from flowers and eat soft berries. Here is a close up. ::shivers::

This will surprise you. The architecture/statues in the center of Cleveland are breathtaking. Take a look.

On our way to my parents, Pia, who is born and raised in downtown Los Angeles, wanted to portray what she thought an Ohio girl looked like....


I think she nailed it :)

Getting to my parents and I wanted to continue on her path of Ohio activities.

She couldn't handle the big bangs so we had to go with the .22 that only "clicks." She was not a bad shot!

A short drive out to the farm house, camo gear in full force, we started fishing.
I've fished that lake all my life and a city slicker comes in and pulls the biggest catfish I have seen come out of there! The look of pure joy on her face was to die for.

Me, on the other hand....

A minnow.

A quick father and son image

A 3 hour drive back to Columbus to catch the flight home but not before we make a stop at the Ohio State Fair for you guessed it...More Animals.

Are you starting to see a pattern yet?!

I will leave you on the last Fun Fact of the post.

#3. Columbus is the #1 test market for consumers in the entire US. This means before all the major companies roll out nationwide, they test the Columbus market first. Interesting, right?!

This is Chipotle's run at Italian Street Food. It's called Piada but of course Pia couldn't help herself but to do some photo cropping.

The End!