Come Aboard, We're Expecting You

The Loooooooooooove Toooooooooooooour! It was my turn to plan Valentine's Day this year, so I went the relatively easy route in snagging us a reservation at the Minnesota Zoo's (become a member today and I can get free stuff) annual Love Tour. Unbeknownest to me, Meaghan had been trying to get us reservations to this the last couple of years. Who knew I was such a good planner?


For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Love Tour is a special after hours tour of the Zoo's Tropics Trail (indoor rainforest) followed by a nice dinner in Discovery Bay. Limited to ~100 couples over two nights, it's billed as a behind the scenes look at the courtship and breeding habits of many of their animals. We didn't really know what to expect, but since we like going to the zoo it seemed a reasonable way to spend an evening.

One issue going into it is that we didn't really know how to dress. On one hand it's the zoo, and on the other it's Valentine's Day. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that problem. When we arrived at the drinks and hors d'oeuvres station, the other couples there were running the gamut from t-shirts and jeans to fancy dresses and high heels. We were sensible enough to shoot the middle ground at the sweater, nice pants, flat shoes level. It is a walking tour after all.


The tour was interesting and informative. Ours was led by a soft-spoken zoo vet who had so much to share about some of the exhibits that the tour behind us started catching up to us. If you ever want to know about the reproductive organs, mating habits, or breeding programs in place for any of these animals, let me know. I'm not going to go into any detail here except to say that attempting to get animals to reproduce is apparently fraught with misery and failure. Maybe it's better out in the wild, but a lot of species seem to really beat each other up before/during/after mating. Humans have it so lucky.

We also didn't know what to expect for dinner. The Minnesota Zoo doesn't have any nice restaurants and we were being served in Discovery Bay. It's the Zoo's aquatic exhibit featuring a large tropical aquarium, dolphin tank, and ray/dogfish petting pond. On a normal day, you can find dozens of screaming kids running around and splashing in the petting pond. It's quite a different experience when you remove all of the kids and add 40 candlelit tables and a live jazz combo. Dinner was a well-prepared surf & turf combo (steak & salmon) followed by a decadent quadruple chocolate cake. It's actually a pretty romantic setting for a meal, if you're into dolphins occasionally gliding by your table.

We had a good time, and it was fun to do something a little on the different side. If you like zoos and are looking for ideas for next year, I'd recommend it. You need not be a member to sign up.