I hope that giraffe isn't constipated.

For the past couple of years, my sister and I have taken our brother on a little adventure for his birthday. Last year we drove up to the Syracuse zoo; this year we went to the Buffalo Zoo. It was our most ambitious outing yet- we stayed in a hotel and ate at the Anchor Bar- home of the Buffalo wing. Here are some photos from our trip, along with some choice Kevin comments that were made along the way.

As we passed signs for Niagara Falls, we got talking about the family trip we took there once.  I corrected Kevin that we stayed in Niagara Falls, Canada, not the American Niagara Falls. He seemed to ponder this for a minute, then said:

"Wait a minute- I just thought of something- is our family Canadian?"

I was very excited to see the river otters.

We drove by a surprising amount of cemeteries on this trip. Every. Single. Time. he asked,

"Is that scary old guy from Poltergeist buried here?"

Kate had no answer for why he was obsessed with this, but apparently he asks this about every cemetery he sees.

My siblings love a good poop kiosk.

The baby gorilla killed us with its cuteness.

"Are those restrooms over there? Do you think there's a men's?"

The mama and baby rhino were amazing. This zoo is one of the few to have a healthy baby in captivity. At this and several other exhibits, we'd be looking at fantastic creatures we'd never encounter in our day-to-day lives. Often some small ordinary bird would fly by the enclosure and Kevin would get incredibly excited and say,

"Wow! Look at that bird!" 

Baby rhinoceros in front of him, but what really impresses him is that sparrow that's eating garbage off the walk in front of us.

First of all, how weird must it be to live in that house across the street from the zoo and see a giraffe out your windows? For no reason we could think of, when we rounded the corner and saw the giraffe out in the enclosure, the first thing Kevin said was,

"I hope that giraffe isn't constipated."

The capybara just fascinated me. Katie and I both agreed it reminded us of the R.O.U.S.es from The Princess Bride. Kevin made a point of saying its name over and over, to emphasize that he knew exactly how to pronounce it.

I ended up not purchasing the bison hat. It was too top-heavy.

Kevin outside the Anchor Bar.

After dinner at the Anchor Bar and some celebratory Prosecco in our hotel room, we went to a nearby bar for a drink, then back to the room. Apparently the fact that our hotel was next door to a Walgreens was a huge plus in Kevin's book. He paraded through the store announcing to everyone (whether they cared or not) that it was his birthday, and insisted that Katie buy an 18-pack of beer instead of a six-pack, even though I was done drinking and we'd already been out all night. We all woke up around 3:30am with heartburn (too much buffalo wing sauce?) and Kevin had some more interesting conversational flights of fancy that, to save my parents the embarrassment, I won't share here.

All in all, I think he had as good a time as we did, and we've already started planning next year's adventure. Hopefully, wherever we end up, the giraffes will not be constipated and all the public bathrooms will include men's rooms as well.

PS- Katie reminded me of a story I forgot to include. I was very excited that our hotel was across the street from the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site. It's the house where Teddy took the oath of office after McKinley was assassinated. After one such mention, Kevin asked, "I don't have to go with you to Mark Twain's house, do I?" I corrected him and said, "It's Teddy Roosevelt, not Mark Twain. And, no." He thought that was funny, so he kept referring to my visiting Mark Twain's house, just to get me to correct him irritatedly. "When are you going over to Mark Twain's house?" "It's Teddy Roosevelt, Kevin, dammit!" I'd look over at him and he'd be grinning slyly.