Crikey!

I went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo!!!! And touched a koala bear! And a kangaroo!!!! Woo! Very exciting times. Here's some pictures of it. It was good fun! They also had this show where a guy brought out a crocodile to talk to people and quash some myths about it. However, the croc, Mossman, wasn't acting normally that day and the trainer was all, "So...Mossman's acting a little out of the ordinary....if I seem nervous it's because...well, honestly, I am." Anyway, he starts getting to the edge of the water and stomping his foot to get the croc's attention and get it to come towards him. Later, he had Mossman leap out of the water to show how high they can get. Then the trainer got Mossman to come out of the water so we could see how big he was. Then he sat down in front of the croc because they wanted to show us we didn't need to be too afraid of crocs on land because they can't move quickly. You couldn't pay me enough money to do any of that. Aussies. This is a crazy land I've traveled to. It was a fun trip to the zoo, for sure, though it may have made my sinuses go a bit crazy after the fact...

One of the snakes in that album is a carpet snake - which has an interesting story with it. I was home the other afternoon and I see my neighbors in my front yard looking concerned. I go outside to chat to them and make sure everything's okay...my neighbor's all, "So...how do you feel about snakes?" Apparently their daughter was watching a friend's pet carpet snake and they left it's cage outside because they didn't want it to eat the cat. Being non-snake owners, they didn't know that, since this is a BIG, STRONG snake, you should put something on top...like a rock...or something heavy...so the snake doesn't LIFT THE LID AND ESCAPE! It got out and climbed the tree in my front yard. My neighbor didn't want to touch it, her son didn't want to touch it, I didn't want to touch it and that was all that was around. So they had to sit in the front yard until someone came home who was willing to climb the tree and get the giant snake out. Adventures galore!