When Fiona the hippo was born six weeks premature, the Cincinnati Zoo saved her life and made her an Internet celebrity in the process. I first heard about Fiona when Alyssa starting sending me videos like this one full of baby hippo adorableness. So did I fly to Cincinnati just for the zoo? Yes, yes I did. (Were the locals astounded that someone from Los Angeles would vacation in Cincinnati? Also yes.)
I’ll admit it’s excessive to take an airplane to the zoo, so I used miles to book a red-eye flight on a budget airline. What could go wrong? Well, around 1 a.m. the pilot made an announcement along the lines of, “If you’ve noticed a funny smell in the cabin, it’s because the air conditioning is malfunctioning. We’re going to do an emergency landing at Phoenix-Mesa. Sorry for the inconvenience, but at least you get a free trip to Arizona.” So this is the first photo I took on the trip. We landed at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, de-planed, dozed in the terminal, then boarded a new plane and were back in the air.
The zoo! This is the entrance from the parking lot. They know we’re here to see Fiona.
Moe the sloth gets a strawberry snack.
Some members of the zoo’s PR team document Moe eating strawberries. We’ll probably see photos on Instagram shortly.
One of the zoo’s two polar bears.
An orangutan and its paper blanket. (You can see these two in action in the video below.)
A Komodo dragon.
A stick bug! I almost didn’t go inside the insect hut, but it’s a good thing I did because it was so cool.
My favorite part was the leafcutter ants. Tubes A and B ran the length of the hallway into the next room, and you could watch tiny ants carrying giant pieces of leaf and rose petal back to their home.
The Africa section–we’re getting closer to Hippo Cove. You can feed giraffes on your way!
The lions. It was raining, which the male lion didn’t appreciate. He disappeared into the bamboo a few moments before this photo.
Hippo prints!
The Hippo Hut is a gift shop that carries Fiona-themed merchandise. I bought a magnet.
Later at the zoo’s main gift shop there were more hippo things! This is the hippo spirit animal necklace. (I bought the earrings.)
And a hippo Pac-Man t-shirt! (In the boys section. They didn’t have it for women. Huh.)
Getting warmer.
Fiona!!
Fiona eating hay. She weighed 29 pounds when she was born in January of 2017 and reached the half-ton milestone the day after Christmas last year. By the time I visited, she was closing in on 1,200 pounds.
Fiona’s fans. It sounded like a rock star was leaving a concert: “Fiona! Fiona!” I also overheard visitors discussing Fiona’s potential boyfriend who is currently located at a zoo in Texas.
Fiona’s mom! Bibi weighs over 3,000 pounds and seeing her up close makes you rethink your chances against a charging hippo. The fish are tilapia. They clean both the hippos and the water.
Fiona takes a yawn break.
And finally, Fiona leans down to boop noses with Bibi.
Since I was there for the zoo, I confined my Cincinnati exploration to the nearby Clifton Gaslight District, which has some delightful vegan options. First up is The Whole Bowl, which I loved because it has one thing on the menu, and it is delicious. The sauce makes it. They have options for size and vegan/non-vegan.
Next is Sitwell’s Act II, a vegetarian restaurant with a sense of humor.
I got the vegan carrot cake and the veganized blackened tofu po’ boy.
The highlight (food-wise) was Sunday morning brunch at Lydia’s On Ludlow. They had live jazz, no wait, and the veganized Jamaican Rundown with an allspice coconut curry sauce that had out-of-this-world flavor.
And last was Habanero with a ginormous vegan burrito and the perfect salsa.
Here is a sample of the scenic neighborhood I walked through to get from my Airbnb to the Gaslamp District.
Zoo animals!