At Omaha ’s Henry Doorly Zoo
I find it slightly amusing that whenever some World Record title is bestowed upon an attraction, there’s usually a modifier in there somewhere to make it true.
For instance, The Beast at Kings Island is the world’s longest wooden coaster.
I say this because I went to the zoo in Omaha today and they had the world’s largest glazed geodesic dome. I don’t really know what that means, but I assume there’s a bigger dome somewhere, just not glazed (with windows?)…
I hadn’t been to a zoo since the 70’s. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice, especially the newer spaces/ containment areas were set up. My heart did leap out for a clouded leopard in cramped quarters in an otherwise very nice indoor rain forest. (I’m sure it’s the world’s largest). Otherwise, there seems to be great attention to creating larger and more interesting habitats to minimize the caged look.
The aforementioned dome was actually pretty stellar. Layers of underground caverns and swamps beneath a desert environment. I completely lost my already poor sense of direction by the time we made it to the caves with all the bats.
All these critters swirled in my head as we ate dinner at a place called the Alpine Inn south of the city. The menu was fried chicken, cheeseburgers or fried pork loin. All leftovers were thrown outside to a platform built right next to the windows so patrons could watch the alarming number of stray cats and occasional raccoon feast, tearing the greasy chicken from the bones. Man I wish’d I woulda had my camera handy for that.