Pokematic Goes to the Toledo Zoo Lights

Hey everyone, back in the day mskate and I would go to the Detroit Zoo Wild Lights, and this year we decided to go to the Toledo Zoo Wild Lights. It's been many years (maybe around 2 decades) since I was last there, but it used to be a pretty common thing; my family would go to the Toledo Zoo when I was little, and in cub scouts we would stay the night in the zoo sometimes, but we haven't been since the cub scout sleep overs. This was a fun thing, mskate and I get a little date get away while enjoying a place that's familiar but not. I also had some vacation I had to use up, so this was a good way to use up the day. Mskate and I left for the hotel, and checked in at about 2 PM. We got suited up for the cold northern Ohio winter night, with 2 pairs of pants and 2 jackets.

Our tickets were for 3PM, and we got there at basically right when the tickets let us in. The parking lot was REALLY empty, which meant we could get a spot right close to the entrance. The Toledo Zoo has this kind of weird set-up, the parking lot and the zoo are on opposite sides of a major freeway; I assume there was a weird thing about where they could get land back in the day, so to go to the zoo one has to go through the tunnel or over the bridge. I'll get to that details later, but first something new, because the zoo has developed things on the parking lot side. It's like an artic exhibit; artic foxes, polar bears, seals, and some other things. This is also where they have the giraffe encounter, the train, and the carousel. Since we got there while it was still day some of the animals were still out. The foxes and polar bears weren't, but we got to see seal swimming and the giraffes in their inside enclosure. Even though we didn't see any polar bears or foxes, the exhibits were pretty cool; the polar bears showed off artic life and explorations, and the foxes was an artic cabin that had a working fireplace (wasn't in use, but there were signs that it has been used and signs that said to be careful).

Now it's time to go to the main zoo. As I said, we could take the tunnel or the bridge. So here's my history with this. When I was REALLY little (like 3 and 4), all they had was the tunnel, and I thought it was so cool because it was like themed to a subway and felt like I was exploring a secret passage (at least that was the faded memories I had of it). There's a story that my grandpa watched me run back and forth in it. Well when I started "really having memories" they installed a bridge and from then on the only option was the bridge (the tunnel was still there, but it was always closed). This bummed me out because while the bridge is interesting (you can see cars go under you, and there are animal prints in the wall), I grew up in a place where highway overpasses were common and "walking over traffic" was "a normal thing," but tunnels were rare so being able to go under ground in a dark tunnel was novel, and now every time I went to the Toledo Zoo "the subway" kept taunting me. Well 20 years later both the tunnel and the bridge are open, so I had to go through the tunnel. Mskate didn't really get why I was so excited to go through the tunnel, but we've been married long enough that she knows I just kind of have my things that are important to me for no real logical reason. Well going through the tunnel was kind of like when I went through alternate entrances at the zoo during covid. As an adult, there's nothing all that special about it; there is "branding" as a subway station with tile words on the wall and murals on the wall, but it is "just a walk way." If I was any other adult, I would probably be disappointed that "it's just a tunnel, there's really nothing special about it," but I am not "any other adult," and when I went through the tunnel I was in awe of "subway theming, murals, I'm under the cars, there's a service grate above me, this is what 4 year old me remembers and was denied all the times I have vivid memories of," and I finally felt closure on that. Woo hoo.

Time for some animals. Before crossing over we saw the bald eagles on the parking lot side of the zoo. They were at the bridge, so we went up the bridge ramp a little to see them. On the original animal side we saw tigers and dingoes. The tigers were really cool, they were active and walking up to the front of the enclosure where we could see them up close. Then there was one that was making noises; it wasn't like a mighty roar, but it was like some kind of grunt. I was really happy since there wasn't any music playing and it was a "natural wild sound," so I got a sample for my next audio library. That was really cool. Afterwards it started lying on the ground like a house cat, and one of the other guests said "aww, I want to play with the murder kitty." Yeah, it's really funny how similar big cats and house cats are; if we were 20 times larger we would have pet lions and tigers, or if our house cats were 20 times larger they would eat us like a lion or tiger. After them we made our way to the elephants. There was an exhibit for the hippos, but they were away, same with the otters. When we got to the elephants they were not out, but we could hear the zapping of the electric fence. That was kind of interesting, reminded me of something out of Jurassic Park, and makes perfect sense since the elephants are giant animals. The elephants had an inside exhibit where we saw a baby walking around and probably a mom eating hay. I was happy since one of my favorite zoo animals when I was little was elephants. Close by was the rhinoceroses, which also weren't outside but were in their inside enclosure. The rhino was playing with a ball, and his horn was all filed down for safety.

After the animals would have been a great time to go to the reptile house (it's right by the elephants), but unfortunately it was closed for renovations. Too bad, I think that's where the cub scout sleep overs were, and I like reptiles. Oh well, the next place we went was the museum of natural history, where they showed different taxidermy natural history exhibit things. There was also some private event going on there, which might have closed off some exhibit, or it was just an open hall. There wasn't much security to keep regular guests out, but maybe at the food station they had a wrist band. Whatever. The 2nd floor was really cool, it had a bunch of reptiles and amphibians, which was really fun. They had a poison dart frog exhibit, but the poison dart frogs were hiding. That's annoying to me because poison dart frogs are my favorite zoo animal these days; they're bright pastel colors, like the only animal that's pastel colors, and I like bright pastel colors. Oh well, there were plenty of other animals. There was also a bug exhibit, and it was pretty cool because they were like bugs from Animal Crossing. It was pretty cool. We initially went there to see the model train exhibit, but that was next door at the kid fun zone. The train was pretty cool; there was one that was all Disney themed box cars, and one that was Charlie Brown and Lucy on one of those hand cars, and they had a drive in movie set-up where they were playing The Polar Express on a portable DVD player screen. The kid building was also kind of cool, they had gunnie pigs in the craft area, and in the play trees they had some frog things that mskate knew as a child.

After the kid building we had dinner. I had pulled pork nachos and mskate had a gluten free personal pizza, where we ate at the indoor seating area. After dinner we went to the petting zoo. We could pet anything except the rabbits and chickens. The rabbit wasn't a "tiny bunny," it was a large hare, I'd guess 15 pounds. This meant we could pet the sheep and goats. I didn't pet any but mskate did. The sheep were funny looking since they were all sheered. After the petting zoo we went to the aquarium. That was really fun. There was a tank with sting rays and sharks. There was a tank with jellies. There was an anemone with clown fish, and I said "look it's nemo." There was a kid looking at that exhibit and the mom got a laugh. We also saw a leopard shark and there were these old ladies who were asking what it was, and I read the sign and she was like "oh yeah I guess it does say that, if only I could read it." She also asked me if that was the largest they get, and I said "yeah that's typically how zoos do it, they have the full grown animals on display." I don't know if she thought I worked there (I do regularly get mistaken for an employee especially when I was a teenager, but I was bundled up in my winter coat wearing a yellow beanie and my yellow night glasses so I don't think I looked like an employee), but she did ask me and I did my normal "make my best educated guess and say so with confidence." There was also a "pet a sturgeon" exhibit, and I tried to but they were down at the bottom of the tank, and if it wasn't 20 degrees outside and I didn't have my man jewelry on I would have stuck my arm down to the bottom of the tank, like I did in Tennessee. There was also this cool bioluminescence exhibit where there were these flashlight fish that were blinking on and off. I tried to get photos and video, but they didn't show on camera. There was also an octopus, that was suctioned against the window so we got to see the suction cups and it "walked" along the window which was cool. The aquarium was just so cool, maybe my favorite part of the zoo (at least at night when a lot of the animals are asleep).

It's now after sunset, and basically all the animals are sleep now. We go down to the amphitheater where Santa is and the winter slide. The slide would have been something I really liked, it's a tube slide where you ride down ice. After looking around we found the reindeer encounter. We didn't pet them, but it was kind of neat. After this, lots of lights. There were a lot of simple animation scenes, which was really fun. There was also a tree that changed colors. We walked around some more and we found an owl that was out, and when we went to a bear or fox enclosure or something, and there was a rat nibbling on the food pellets. Mskate thought that was the exhibit, but I'm like "no babe, that's vermin" and she was like "really, but he's kind of cute, like your parents hamster." Yeah, we were rodent people, but she was right, the rat wasn't mangy or scarred, and didn't get scared when I shown a light on it or approached it from the other side of the glass (which is a trait of domesticated rats), so he was kind of cute. We also went to the great ape exhibit, which was closed but had this cool statue.

This was about the end of the night, having done basically everything and having spent 4 hours at the zoo, and getting cold. We walked the bridge back, which was about what I remember, and was kind of neat walking over the traffic. Now for the difficult thing of finding a souvenir shirt for mskate. She saw one where it was "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas," but all they had were child sizes and 3XL. We looked through all the gift shops, but nothing. Leaving was pretty easy though, our car was up front and we just had to jump on the free way to get to the hotel. I was still a little hungry and mskate needed a drink, so we went to the burger king that was right next to the hotel where I got a spongebob kids meal. I got a Mr. Krabs toy, a spongebob box, and a spongebob paper crown. The rest of the night we just watched Everybody Loves Raymond.

The next day wasn't super exciting, but the hotel breakfast had this cool pancake machine. The drive home was just a drive home. Later that day I went to see Kill Bill The Whole Bloody Affair, a movie that had been living in mystery for about 2 decades. Really great to see. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

An 80s Doll with 80s Videogames, Another Columbus Ohio Adventure

Hey everyone, at the very beginning of this year my wife and I went to Columbus for a new American Girl Doll release, and with the release of the Harry Potter clothes we decided to go again. We also made sure to get the same hotel that we did last time because of the awesome arcade. Mskate is pretty into Harry Potter and wanted to make a character doll (maybe Ginny), so we planned on maybe buying a doll in addition to the accessories. With all that we planned on purchasing I bought some gift cards through swagbucks to get the cash back. Since this was a new release they had some promotional give aways and we wanted to get them. Mskate was being kind of pesimistic though, basically saying "I know we won't be making it, so we don't need to even try, we'll sleep in and don't worry about it," but I said "no, we're going to try, we'll get up early and go there to make it."

Saturday was the day. We woke up at 6:30 but didn't leave until about 7:30, and that was OK because the give aways were for the first 50 people who bought things. I drove the first leg and it was good, then mskate drove the second leg. I was getting hungry and wanted to get McDonalds because of the Pokemon toy promotion, but it was too early since they were still serving breakfast. Once we got to the mall I pulled out my camera and was ready to take some video, but I neglected to charge my camera and the battery was dead, so I had to take video on my phone.

The store was pretty cool. Since we had been there earlier this year there weren't a lot of things that were super new, but there were some cool displays. One thing mskate pointed out is that there were many displays made of card board, and some of them looked really good. You can see them in the video above. The Harry Potter stuff was really well made. There was a trunk that came with an owl, birty bots every flavor beans, chocolate frog with wizard card, wand, and acceptance letter. There was also the sorting hat with the nimbus 2000. This was a funny story, there's a "classic witch" costume that's available as well and mskate thought the broom that came with that set and was on display was the Harry Potter broom, and I pointed out how it wasn't. There were also school uniforms and house scarves, and mskate wanted to get a Griffindore so we could make a Ginny, but of course being the house of the main character it was sold out. We almost got a Ravenclaw so we could make a Cho Chang, but decided against it. Instead of a doll for a Harry Potter character, we got a Courtney doll. She's the 80s doll and her story is awesome (because it's all 80s pop culture, with a love of Pacman and Care Bears).

Now for some interesting things. They have blind bags with little accessories from sets that didn't sell well, typically foods or home supplies (like we kept feeling shampoo bottles and bracelets when feeling these bags), and we were only interested in the cell phone and smart watch set. A lot of other people must have been interested in it too because we felt all hundred or so bags and no cell phone set. It would be a little bit of a scene if it wasn't that everyone does it. Oh well, in the past we successfully found the cheese and cheese grater, milk and eggs, and syrup and pancakes sets.

After the shopping we went to eat lunch at the mall food court. I was going to maybe get Shake Shack while Mskate got Bibibop, but we both ended up getting Bibibop. I got a salad bowl with broccoli, steak, potatoes, and teriyaki sauce. We sat at a table that had outlets so we could charge the camera and my phone, but the camera wasn't taking a charge and my phone barely got a charge after sitting there for maybe an hour. Oh well.

After lunch we went to a game and puzzle store that was in the mall, and I bought a pikmin 3 puzzle. I played the coin dozer games that they had, and I thought they were close to payout but they weren't so I lost a dollar. I had fun though. After that store we went to the legoland gift shop and played "I got that one and that one and that one" since mskate's dad likes to gift lego. We managed to find something we didn't have and kind of need for our holiday display table, a black cat and mouse in a pumpkin display piece for the fall display. We went to the lego store after that and didn't find anything but still played "I got that one and that one and that one."

After this we drove to the hotel. I checked us in, unloaded the stuff, and packed the car while mskate took the stuff up to the room. I caught up to her quickly since there was an open parking spot. We got situated and just rested for an hour or so. We also explored the hotel some and went down to the pool. At the pool we found this funny bit of conflicting information in the signs. Mskate also played with her new dolls, and we got all set-up. Here I am with Courtney. 

For dinner we ordered mskate sushi from the local sushi place and I got McDonalds. I got 2 happy meals because I wanted the pokemon toys. They tried to give me scooby doo toys, but I pushed them and asked for the pokemon toys (and they gave them to me). The McDonalds was pretty interesting, it wasn't like a normal building that matches their style. After the McDonalds we went to get mskate her sushi, which is also right next to the barcade. They have tinted windows and mskate thought they might be out of business, so when I went to get the sushi I also checked (they were open). We went back to the hotel where I finished my McDonalds and mskate had her sushi, and I had her wasabi and other spicy thing they give with it (I just ate it straight, and I felt the heat of the wasabi in the back of my nose). A little while later around 5:30 I went to the barcade.

Here's the business model of this barcade, the drinks are inflated but most of the arcade games are free. Skeeball, pinball, and some new arcade fighters cost money, but every video cabinet that is over 10 years old is on free play. It's a great place. When I got there I started a tab and started with a Galaga; a purple drink made with rum, gin, vodka, and raspberry liquor. This was a good drink, I highly recommend it. Then to start, I went with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles in Time. Someone had left 40 credits on Rafael early in level 1, so I played as Raff. After the time warp I decided to start filming some lets plays with my phone, holding the phone in my left hand while I controlled Raff with my right hand, joystick in my palm and attack with my middle and ring finger. I don't recommend playing like this if you are spending money since dodging requires the jump button, but if it's on free play it's an interesting challenge. While I was playing the 2020 level a boy that was probably 7 or 8 came up with his mom and asked if he could play with me. I said sure and he pressed the credit button for Leonardo and Michelangelo and we played together some. I was very careful with how I engaged with them, because I wanted to let his mom know I wasn't mad that he jumped on but I also didn't want to be a weirdo at the bar talking to children. It was cool though, because at least according to Irate Gamer 4 random kids playing the TMNT arcade game together was what you did back in the day. He got kind of bored after half the level and ran off, so for a little while I'm moving 3 turtles around the screen so I could advance the level, and then let them game over so I could continue playing as Raff (though I did play some as the other turtles just to try them out, because why not). At the last level I got all the turtles on the screen because at the end of the level if there were more than 1 turtles on screen they would high five, and I wanted to have all of them at the end. I eventually beat the game and because I was taking a sip between each level I finished my drink, but because I didn't start from the very beginning I decided to play through until I got to a part where I walked in, so I played through the entire game. As I explained in the other blog and in the lets play, I have a history with this game, so every time I come here I'll probably spend an hour or whatever beating it because 9-12 year old me never was able to.

After Turtles in Time I went to the bar and got a Frogger; a drink made with coconut rum, pineapple juice, melon liquor, and orange juice. I was drawn more to the pineapple and didn't see the coconut, and if I did I probably would have got something else because I don't like coconut, and it wasn't for me. Since I wasn't getting any trouble for filming the lets plays with TMNT, the next game I played was Maximum Force, a light gun game I could play with 1 hand. I don't have a history with this one partially because I wasn't allowed to play light gun games as a child (my mom was pretty anti-gun), and I for sure wasn't allowed to play this because when the bad guys got shot they kind of blew up. I also didn't see this in the arcades I frequented as child, so even if that was permitted I wouldn't have had the option. Regardless, it was fun. The fun thing was it had FMV human enemies and low-texture 3D graphics. I let's played the first 2 levels, but the 3rd I did without the camera because I wanted to dual wield, and that was a fun way to play. I took some sips between levels, but not too much and still had plenty of drink after I finished the game. After Maximum Force I decided to play Frogger while drinking a Frogger, but I was a little buzzed by then and while I'm normally a wiz at Frogger (at least enough to get halfway through the first level), but I wasn't even able to get my first frog in the end cave. I also gave the original Donkey Kong a try, but failed pretty hard at that as well, not being able to get past the first screen.

After failing at Frogger and Donkey Kong I went to play The Simpsons Arcade game. The button layout was pretty similar to the TMNT button layout, so I decided to play as Lisa and do lets plays as well. I filmed one before my phone had a super low battery, so I only got one video. This is another game I have some history with, because I would play this sometimes at the Chuck E Cheese and the Caesarland by me, and I watched the demo screen very well because I would watch it all the time pretending to play. One of the cool things about this game is that if 2 characters stood next to each other motionless for a few seconds they would work together for a super attack. Bart and Lisa would hold hands and hit the enemies, and Marge and homer would do something similar. If Bart or Lisa stood next to Homer, he would pick them up and they would deal double damage. If it was Marge she would pick up the kid and throw them like a projectile. Because the combo attacks just required 1 joystick input (Bart+Lisa and Homer+Marge), there was some time where I just put all 4 characters on screen and controlled them simultaneously, but that eventually became too much to handle so I just played 1 character at a time. I ended up playing as Homer and Lisa primarily (Lisa because that was good for lets plays, Homer because I like playing as him), and I ended up getting 2 high scores because of it. It was another game I beat, and I finished my Frogger while playing it. I had seen the end of Simpsons Arcade a couple of times because there would sometimes be a kid or group of kids that were determined to beat it, but it was fun to beat it all by myself.

For my 3rd and final drink for the night, I was going to get a Stonewall (8 different liquors with a splash of sours, orange juice, and sprite in a souvenir tumbler), but they were out of tumblers so I got a blue bomber (blueberry vodka, blue curaco, lemonade, and blueberry redbull; a very good drink). I decided to give Tengen Tetris a try, the arcade version that is very Russian. I could only use one rotate button because the other was sticky and I didn't want to deal with sticky. I did pretty well with it, getting to like level 5 or 6. After Tetris I played Area 51, another lightgun game that while I never played (gun game and kind of gory), I did see in arcades all the time, and on the demo screen I'm pretty sure one said "used to help train law enforcement." I did pretty well considering I was 2 drinks in and tired. The next game I played was Q-bert, and I made it to level 2 before getting the game overs (I think I played 2 games because the first one didn't "feel real"). I also played Ms. Pacman until I game over'ed, and didn't want to try much because I have a Ms. Pacman 35th anniversary cabinet at my house. The next game I played and failed at was Donkey Kong Jr, it was much harder than the NES port I have (and the 2.5 cocktails and fatigue didn't help). I also played the original Punch Out, and got to the 3rd boxer despite not really knowing what I was doing on top of the other challenges.

One of the last games I played was Tapper, a game I have some history with. When I was in 5th grade Shockwave.com was the game site we frequented, and they had classic arcade games available to play, one being Tapper (or "Rootbeer Tapper," the "kid friendly asset swap" that replaces the Budweiser logo with a generic root beer logo). Even though I nearing my end, I could still beat the bar setting and bonus stage with ease, then I got to level 8 which always got me as a kid (I'd either serve too many mugs and lose the life that way, or a customer would get to me because I didn't serve them fast enough), and this is where I bit it again. It was now a quarter to 9 and I only had enough in me for 1 more game, and I played another game that had a lot of nostalgia connections from Shockwave, Rampage. This was a modern version but still Rampage. I played as George and made it to like level 4 before I basically gave up on (but I still made it to a game over). I cashed out at this time and the final bill was $32. That was a good price for 3.5 hours of arcade games and 3 drinks. If I counted 50 cents for each time I pressed start it probably would have been more than $32. After the arcade I went back to the hotel. Mskate was in bed but not asleep, so I was able to tell her how the arcade went. I showered and had some snacks, and that was it for the night. 

Sunday morning was pretty chill. As I said in the other blog, the hotel doesn't have a free breakfast, so I had poptarts and pistachios. We just relaxed some in the morning, before packing up, checking out, and going to church. The mass was interesting because there were a lot of small children, and they were a little distracting. The church was in a cute little town, with some cool old style architecture. Mskate drove the first half of the trip, and then I drove the other half. So, we filled the gas tank before going on the trip and that should have got us pretty much the whole trip. However, with the traffic that we ran into the gas tank was running on empty and I wasn't sure we would make it home (the car was driving a little different than normal), so I stopped at a gas station like 5 miles from our house and got 2 gallons, and that was more than enough to get us home. We unpacked the stuff and then just enjoyed the rest of the Sunday.

Overall, great trip. While American Girl Doll isn't really my thing, I don't dislike it (we got Courtney mainly because I love the 80s and she's an 80s doll). Then there's Level One Bar and Arcade, an arcade with free videogames. The only way it could have been better is if my camera wasn't dead and they had the Griffindore accessories. Next time we go (because there will be a next time), I'll make sure I have enough charge on my phone and video camera so I can take more lets play videos. I was a little hesitant because if people don't want you taking video they REALLY don't want you taking video, and since was a bar that wasn't in a tourist place there was a decent chance that they wouldn't want me taking video, but I took video in front of the employees and they didn't say anything, so next time I'll be sure to be prepared. I also won't have 3 alcoholic drinks; maybe 2 and a non-alcoholic drink (like a Pinky or Donkey Kong Jr.). I also will play some other games that I haven't played yet like the big buck hunter and X-men game, but I'll always play TMNT because that was as much of a draw of Wheels Inn as anything else there. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.