As some of you may remember, Animated Meat first came to life in 2008 as a way to document some sights that managed to slip through the cracks of most popular travel websites. You may also remember that the original website was built on Apple's now defunct iWeb. From there, it migrated over to WordPress where it met an untimely demise at the hands of Russian hackers. Many of those old, pre-2012 entries have found a new home here in the Before the Now section. I would consider these posts as my starting place as a writer, probably comparable to a musician's first demo tapes. They are very rough, but I took them all seriously and wrote each one with passion. While I would like to believe that I have matured in my abilities as a writer, it is my hope that I carry this same blind passion into all of my new efforts.

Oregon Zoo - Originally Published 2008

March 31, 2019

Here’s some advice. If you plan on visiting Washington Park and Zoo, make sure you pick a day when the weather isn’t sweltering. We made the mistake of trying it on a day when the weather was not kind and as a result, we didn’t get the full impact of the place.

I mean, it was so hot that the only animals that were moving around were the dopey people like yours truly. This leopard had the right idea of what to do with a day like this.

If you happen to end up there on such a day, I recommend jumping on the train and taking a ride down to the Rose Test Garden. The train winds through a shady forest.