"Is a camel a mammal?"

Asked Charlotte. We went to the Cincinnati Zoo today and had a discussion about what a mammal was, and wasn't on the way. If you haven't been to the zoo in awhile (it's been a year for me) be advised that there is much construction. We passed an ornate entrance that looked nothing like the old one. Since I couldn't find another, I drove back to it and parked. The were no signs telling you where to walk, so we latched on to some others and followed them a few blocks down the street. Again, no signs, just guessing. They've added a train/tram pass and movie theater passes. The reciprocal museum pass only works for general admission. We took the train ride (it lasted about 2 minutes) to appease Ryan and then saw the cheetah run show--really great show, beautiful cats. Ryan wanted to see the polar bears, Charlotte the flamingos. We were there for 5 hours and still didn't see everything. The most interesting to me was the insect house. Now, I am not an insect person--at all. They had an earwig on display the length of my palm--several cockroaches, beetles (cool-looking)and spiders. Some scorpions and a great interactive display on tree ants. Did you know there are honey ants? The insects were great because they were behind glass. They had diving beetles--they swam under water! And one bug swam on its back. So aside from the apathetic teenaged workers and a couple of smelly houses- the Cat house really did smell like alot of pee, we had a great afternoon. I promised the kids we will go back to see the rest.