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| - For years now, I have been telling my boyfriend about my hopes and dreams in life. One that kept coming up, time and time again, was that I wanted to hug a penguin someday. I was resigned to the fact that this would never happen - where on earth would I possibly be able to hug a penguin? Antarctica? Not going there. Zoos - yeah, they have gates separating me from the huggable waddlers. So it was just another dream destined to never come true - until my 26th birthday when my boyfriend presented me with two tickets to the Penguin Encounter at the National Aviary.
I was so childishly excited when we arrived at the Aviary one Saturday. We were early for the penguin encounter, so we explored the rest of the Aviary first. I was surprised at how delightful and interesting it was - yeah it's just birds, but like - who knew birds could be so cool? It's essentially a zoo for birds, which sounds boring, but it is not!
My favorite part (besides the penguins) was going in the tropical habitat room. This trainer gathered up a big crowd of us and did a feeding demonstration which was awesome. Only kids got to be participants - well, it was an unspoken rule, but how dumb would I look standing up there with a bunch of 5 year olds - so that was a bummer. But wow - watching these kids throw a grape in the air and this beautiful multicolored bird swoops down to catch it. Birds were rushing past me so fast I felt a breeze by my ears. The air was just buzzing with life, and the trainer was really knowledgeable and gave us a great, interactive show.
When it was time for the Penguin Encounter, i was thrilled to hear that we were the only two signed up that day. Technically as many as 8 people can do it at a time, and I would've been so furious if there were 6 dumb kids getting all up on my penguin time, but fortunately that was not the case. We were brought to a classroom, and sat on some low benches close to the ground. We heard some weird honking sounds coming from behind a partition.
A few minutes later, a trainer (Chris, I think?) came in, and opened a door to a little cage where our new penguin friend Elvis had been hiding. Apparently he had been honking to alert us to his presence, and perhaps to ascertain whether or not we were also penguins (nope). Elvis waddled around us for a while, rather disinterested, but he LOVED his trainer. He kept plummeting into Chris's lap in this really hilarious way, flapping his wings with the sheer delight of being so close to his buddy. To keep him still, Chris had to put a hand on his beak, and then Elvis chilled out enough for us to be able to pet him. He was feathery, not surprisingly, and a very cute little guy. Whenever Chris let go of him, he'd just sort of wander around and sometimes start heading away from us until Chris would go "hey! where do you think you're going?" and he'd waddle back. Chris told us lots about penguins while Elvis tolerated our attention.
After a while, Chris put Elvis on a table and we got to take some pictures with him. I still hadn't gotten my penguin hug, so at one point I moved in a little closer to Elvis and he sort of tried to beak my face, as if to say "back it up lady, we just met!" Learned that penguins don't really like to be hugged, and they mostly just tolerate being petted (unless you are their beloved trainer).
After the photo op, we went outside with Chris and watched him put Elvis back in the penguin enclosure. We watched him swim around in a showoffy manner for a while before we left. It was a SUPER cool thing to be one-on-one with a wild animal (and an adorable one at that), but sadly my dream of hugging a penguin is not yet realized. But maybe I should stop wanting wild animals to be like house pets, and just be content that I got to pet him at all!
Super fun day - definitely recommend the Aviary in general, and the Penguin Connection if you are a fan of the silly creatures!
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