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December 26, 2012

The Wienermobile

Filed under: Uncategorized — DrAnthonysBlog @ 10:19 pm
Tags: 1936, Adventures, Advertising, Advise, Ago, Amusing, Appropriate, Area, Assertion, away, Back Seat, Big, bright, Busy, Charitable Work, Check, Children, Colorful, Comfortable, Consistent, Continued, Cooking, Cool, Coolest, Dark, Day, Decades, Different, Donation, Door, Driving, Either, Essentially, Evening, Everyone, Exchange, Expect, Explained, Fascinating, Flat Screen, Forgot, Fully, Giving Away, Glowed, Gone, Gullwing, Happily, Highway, Hometown, Hot Dog, Immediately, Inception, Inspecting, Interupted, kids, Large, Last, License Plate, Long, Look, Looked, Looking, Me, Middle Schooler, Miles, Models, money, Monitors, Next, North America, Oscar Mayer, Parking Lot, Particularly, Passing Out, Present, Price, Questioned, Raising, reason, Recall, Receive, Seats, Sick, Small, Soft Drink, Sound System, Southern California, staff, Supermarket, Surprisingly, Thanked, Themselves, Time, Told, Tours, Traveled, Waited, Website, Wheels, Whistles, Wienermobile, Youngest

Not long ago, I was driving down the highway with my kids when one told me that he just saw a really big hot dog on wheels. By the time I looked, it was gone. The claim was naturally questioned by the middle schooler in the back seat! I interrupted the amusing exchange to tell them that he may actually have seen the Wienermobile.

The Wienermobile, I explained, was actually a large hot dog on wheels that traveled around north America, and beyond, essentially advertising Oscar Mayer while also performing charitable work. The last time I had seen it was more than 3,000 miles away and over 3 decades earlier. As I recall, it had come to my hometown in southern California and was passing out colorful whistles shaped like wieners, which I happily waited in line to receive.

We continued on our way and I forgot about it until that evening when I looked it up on the Oscar Mayer website. It turned out, that he had indeed seen the Wienermobile and it was going to be in our area through the next day raising money for sick children. My kids had to see this for themselves, so the next day we were off to take a look…

It was in a supermarket parking lot, not unlike the one it was in when I had seen it last.

The Wienermobile looked pretty much the same too.

Everyone was busy inspecting it and the gullwing door was particularly fascinating to all present.

As you can see, parallel parking and backing-up should probably be avoided when driving it as the result could easily be a damaged dog.

This particular Wienermobile was not as big as you would think up close, but was every bit as cool as you would expect in person!

The inside was bright with large comfortable looking seats.

Surprisingly, it also sported a state-of-the-art sound system and flat screen monitors as well.

The license plate was of course personalized and fully appropriate.

There have been many models of Wienermobile since its inception in 1936, though the overall look has remained surprisingly consistent.

The Wienermobile staff also still hand out small whistles, though these were not brightly colored, though they instead glow in the dark.

As we were walking away my youngest thanked me and said that we always went on the coolest adventures, to which I had to agree. If you ever see a large wiener on wheels, do yourself a favor and check it out!

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April 7, 2012

An afternoon at the Zoo

Filed under: Uncategorized — DrAnthonysBlog @ 11:44 am
Tags: African, animals, Asia, Bald Eagle, Bald Eagles, Boise, bright, Challenges, color, Entertainment, experience, Fascinating, Florida, friendly, Gibbons, Giraffes, Great Seal, Hours, human, idaho, inexpensive, Kid, Koi, Large, Lettuce, Manatees, member, Natural World, Penguin, Personality, petting zoo, pictures, place, San Diego, Siamang, Special, staff, Tampa, Treat, United States, visitors, Wallaby, Wild, Zoo

My parents took the family to many zoos when I was young, from San Diego to the one in Boise, Idaho. After I was grown, I visited various zoos, including some in Europe and others in Asia, occasionally and usually only as part of the sightseeing that many of us do when visiting new places. Since I became a parent, zoo visits have become more frequent as our children, like most kids, really enjoy them. Recently, we visited Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and found it to be a terrific place to spend an afternoon.

It is not a particularly large zoo, nor is it very showy, but it is well-organized, very kid friendly, and not overly expensive, when compared to other area attractions. One thing that struck me about the place, and you will see it in these pictures, is that many of the animals have a lot of personality!

Also, you can get amazingly close to many of them, which really enhances the experience!

The petting zoo in particular includes many common animals, and some not as much so, that seem to thrive on the human attention or at least do a good job of pretending for their human visitors!

These African Penguins looked like they were at a pool party, with the one in the middle one appearing to strike poses for me.

You are actually able to walk into the Wallaby area and view them with no screen, gate, or fence in between, though there is a member of the staff who keeps a watchful eye nearby.

The Koi were very large but you cannot tell from this picture because there is nothing to compare it to. I liked this one because the color was so bright!

The Giraffes were very sweet and really enjoyed looking at us!

The Siamang Gibbons were interesting to see, though they were not as close as the other animals.

The Manatees were difficult to see clearly, and more so to photograph well, due to the thick glass and multiple tiny pieces of lettuce (their lunch apparently) that were floating in the water at the time. Still, they are fascinating to watch and were a special treat for us to see since we have yet to view any in the wild.

This Bald Eagle was unexpected and reminded me why this noble bird of prey was selected to be the national animal as well as appear on the Great Seal of the United States.

This zoo, probably not unlike one located near you, is a wonderful place to visit that is easily forgotten about when thinking of reasonably priced things to do. To me Zoos, regardless of where you are in life, are terrific places to reconnect with the natural world and forget about your personal challenges, at least for a few hours!

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