Earlier this year there was this exotic animal and reptile expo way out in Slidell -about 40 minutes and a bridge away, that Mark wanted to go to. I don’t think I’ve ever known anything worth making a trip to Slidell for, and this was no exception considering we weren’t looking to adopt a lizard or anything.
Mark has firmly established that to get another pet we had to either get rid of one our existing pets or one of our existing children, so if we were just going to look at turtles and birds, there are plenty of pet stores on our own side of the lake.
But Mark had friends that worked this thing and he thought the girls would love it. I still wasn’t sold, and I didn’t think the girls would’ve been either until I read the event page which listed among the animals featured: lemurs.
The kids freaking love those svelte jumping raccoons.
Once, when I worked at a one hour photo in South Carolina years ago, someone dropped off a bunch of film from a nearby Secret Lemur Island. That was maybe the first time I had ever seen multitudes of lemurs. They looked like something out of Labyrinth, so I was a little in love for a minute. I couldn’t deny the girls a chance to be in a room with one or more of the goblin-eyed creatures, so we set off on what for me is considered a road trip.
Fun fact about that photo lab job BTW: Many people failed to grasp that when they dropped off their film, actual humans looked at every picture-but WE DID. It was literally our job and I know that most people didn’t understand this because all the “intimate moments” people photographed and just… dropped at the one hour photo in their neighborhood Winn-Dixie.
I will mention here that while Husband Face at least tolerates my own issues with driving, he’s got a few too. Mainly with bridges because of a past awful car accident. So when we got to the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain and the blood had long ago left my hand that had been clutching the grip bar, I could feel his tension over my own in the loud way he was swallowing and the flexing of his hands on the wheel. This of course was fuel to my own anxiety- but I proudly did not vomit.
He told me after we arrived at the thing that he didn’t want to say anything but he “almost had a panic attack on that bridge”-this from the man who doesn’t see the problem taking long driving trips but I digress.
SO, we got there alive and it was mostly reptiles. There were some cute floofy things like sugar gliders and hamsters and spiky hedgehogs and giant birds, but no lemurs. No lemurs at all.
It was fine though, as long as the girls enjoyed themselves.
However, this was the day we learned That Lillian is scared of snakes. It was unfortunate, being that we were in convention center filled mostly with snakes and all. She also does not like lizards unless they live in our yard apparently.
Everyone there was very nice and Violet was pleased as punch that a hedgehog pooped on her, so at least she took something positive from the experience.
Next time I have to cross that lake though, it’ll be because I’m evacuating.
