Monkey Bizness

Today I got to see Nathalie. I worked with Nathalie at SeaWorld and I originally was coming to Houston to see her. But then Rose got a job in Houston and it was nice to be able to visit two people in one place! Nathalie picked me up this morning and we did breakfast at a place she has been dying to try and then we drove around. Nathalie LOVES Houston so it was nice to see things through her eyes. We drove around Memorial Park and through the different neighborhoods on the way to the Houston Zoo. Nathalie works with the primates there and today I had a backstage pass to the entire department.

The Houston Zoo is beautiful and it's a lot bigger then I thought it was. We started off in the Africa area with the Chimps. Nathalie LOVES her Chimps and all 10 of them have a special place in her heart. I got to see them get a few different types of enrichment and listen to a keeper talk before we headed into the back areas. I haven't seen a primate area since I worked at the Jacksonville Zoo so it was really interesting to go back and see how they run things.

Nathalie and her Chimps

We walked through the zoo to see most of the exhibits but we mainly spent our time with the primates. I am not a primate fan but being with someone who is so passionate is refreshing and contagious. I listened to her tell me all their names and history and I was able to get some great pictures because they would all come to greet her as we walked around.

There are 4 behind the scenes areas for primates and 16 keepers to keep the department running so we went to all 4 areas. In the second area I got to meet a 7-month old Orangutan who was SO cute!! He had his hair sticking straight up like Einstein :) I also got to see the rest of their Orangutan population before we went and met a Gibbon. The Gibbon decided to sing for us and it was just amazing to hear all the types of vocalizations she could make!

Nathalie and the Gibbon

I truly enjoyed my time with Nathalie and my tour around the zoo. It was something different and out of the norm for me. I forget how much I love being in that environment and it made me start to really think about my next move and how to get back to that world. We talked about SeaWorld in comparison and all the things that we both learned from working there and it really just made me so grateful for all of the opportunities that I had there and all that will come from my experiences there.

Nathalie and the Human

When I got back Rose and I made dinner (disaster...we blame her crappy oven), watched more movies and just didn't do anything. These are my kind of nights! Tomorrow I am on my way to NOLA and will be staying at my 3rd hostel, 1st one without Cindy.