- 1989, Lisbon Zoo in Front of the white peacocks.
One of the family things we loved to do, especially after we had children, was to visit the zoo in Lisbon. We visited the monkeys, the giraffes, lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! One year when we went, they had added a pool with dolphins, billed as “The Miami Dolphins”. We liked to sit close to the pool so we could catch some of the splashes! Well, not all the “kids” liked the splashing, but I thought it was fun. Sometimes the trainers invited some of the children to participate. Not all of the children liked that, either.
The star of the zoo, at least for us, was an elephant. The elephant’s name has been lost in the mists of time, but his talent has not been. You had to have a token, which you purchased at the kiosk. Then you held it out to the elephant. He plucked the token from your hand with his trunk. Next he deposited the token in the designated container and rang a bell.
One of the features of the zoo was the pet cemetery. Nothing like one you may have read about elsewhere, it fascinated us. There were some chairs nearby and we often stopped to rest there. It would be difficult to describe, so I found a short YouTube video featuring the cemetery.
Would you want to bury your pets there? What do you think of the names of the pets?
The Portugal Years 
I loved the zoo! Didn’t we do paddle boats too?
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At the zoo? I don’t remember that. It is a great zoo.
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I’m not sure if it was at the zoo or not. I do remember paddle boats with Daddy though.
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I remember that elephant! Holy cow — talk about resurrecting deeply buried memories!
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I know, right? I was just thinking about Portugal last week and I remembered the zoo. When I sat down to write about the zoo, I remembered the elephant. I had to double check with Dad to make sure I wasn’t making it up!
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What a nice-looking family you have!
Man that cemetery is huge!!! The names were…creative. I wonder if it gets scary at night there.
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The zoo closed around sunset as far as I remember, so no way to find that out. However, who knows, really? Maybe there are night creatures who go after dark.
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And thank you for your kind words about my family. The picture was taken a couple of years ago….we don’t any of us look like that anymore. 😀
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Ooo, I would like to sneak in after dark…
Oh, I’m sure you all look much better now! 😉
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I dunno about sneaking in after dark – remember Night in the Museum?
I dunno about looking better, but we may be more wiser. Maybe.
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That’s true. I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to go in now!
Well, the professor grows unwiser with age–I hope you’re not like that too!
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I may be worse than the Professor. I mostly like to try new things. This year friends invited us to Oktoberfest in Helen, GA, and we are going for a few days. I haven’t felt this brave since I jumped off the 3 meter diving board many years ago. I think a lot of it has to do with fall foliage that we don’t get in Florida. I’m sure there will be some punchy people there.
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Ed, the kids, and I love visiting our local zoo. Thank you for sharing your memories. I bet Cathy, Luke, Ellie, and Sam would all love watching the elephant. The pet cemetery is interesting. Have a very lovely day!
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The grands have been to the Jacksonville zoo and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Ohhhhhhh…love the picture!!!!
And the prose, too.
Oktoberfest is just a zoo without the cages. You’ll be fine, I’m sure.
😀
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You’re scaring me.
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Reblogged this on The Girl Who Couldn't Eat Anything and commented:
One morning my parents bundled us three kids into the back seat of the car and told us we were going on a trip. They didn’t tell us where, but if we could guess correctly they would tell us if we were right. I finally guessed correctly–The Lisbon Zoo! It was the most amazing outing as you can tell from the following blog post from my mom:
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