The Cleveland Zoo.

Okay, so I'm ready to share pictures of our trip to the Cleveland Metropark Zoo ... but first ... I have to tell you ... I went to an Archiver's!!!


I have always wanted to go to one of these stores however I've never had the opportunity until I went to Cleveland. If you have never heard of Archiver's, it is an amazing scrapbooking store with over 40 locations! They have some really wonderful items ... I found some cool things (like owl brads!) that I've never seen before. If you would like to see pictures of the store then click here!


And look what I found while we were away ... a Martha Stewart Owl Paper Punch! Oh my goodness ... I wasn't expecting to find it, I didn't even know it existed. But, I have to tell you ... it was absolutely one of the highlights of my trip!

If interested in some punched pieces from this cute punch ... I have them in my Ebay Store ... you can click here for more information.

And now on to our trip to the zoo ...


I love this picture of Griffin in front of the words made from plants ... it reads Cleveland 2008 if you can't make it out.


And the sign welcoming us to the zoo ...


Oh my goodness ... what is that WILD animal standing there? Is it a monkey? A parrot? Why noooooo ... it's a Griffin!


Of course I had to share pictures of the giraffes, seeing as it is my favorite animal


And Griffin and I love flamingos too ...

We had a really nice time at the zoo ...

But going back to the hotel was a little scary for me. Our hotel was about 30 minutes away from the zoo, so I put the address in my handy little GPS and off we went. We got there just fine ... but on the way back to the hotel, it sent me a back a completely different way. I am the first to admit I am NOT good with directions or maps, that's why I rely on my GPS (which Mike says is not a good thing and I agree now). I knew something was wrong when all of a sudden the huge buildings in downtown Cleveland were staring me in the face and the huge football stadium was right in front of us. The GPS had me turning here and turning there, finally landing me in an area that I was totally scared to be in. It was a pretty rough looking area (that I had to drive in for 8 miles!). Apparently the road I was on was supposedly 4 lanes (2 lanes each way), but there was only a middle line painted and to me it looked like there was room for only one lane on each side. Buses were passing me in a lane that really didn't exist in my mind! I was scared ... really scared. My friend Heidi called me on the telephone when I first started on this scary 8 mile adventure and she was sweet enough to "hold my hand" over the phone while I made it through. Honestly folks ... this was one of the scariest moments of my life.

Heidi ... thank you for being there for me when I needed you!