Roarin' 20s?

Read several headlines over the past few days welcoming everyone to the "Roarin' 20s".  Sure.

Highlight this week was our New Year's Eve dinner at the Safari Club located on the New Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.  Most of the pics are from our visit.  The zoo area (25 acres) is closed.  Only the restaurant is open.

A little history on the zoo.  For those of you who remember the Animal Planet channel during the early 2000s, there was a show called the "Little Zoo That Could".

The zoo that was spotlighted in that series is the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo in Gulf Shores, AL.  If you followed that series, you'll recall the zoo was pretty much destroyed during a hurricane in 2004.  The animals were moved to a local farm, and the zoo was rebuilt.  As the series ended, the animals were moved back to the zoo in Gulf Shores.  (If my memory serves me correctly, we visited the zoo in 2011 or 2012.)

As the series closed, the zoo owners noted that land was donated for a new zoo, and they planned to build a new zoo.  Fast forward 15 years, and here's the new zoo.  It's where we had the New Year's Eve dinner.  The pictures we took of the zoo area are through closed gates or windows of the Safari Club.  We plan to go back in early February when the zoo opens and take more pictures.

We loved the restaurant - Safari Club.

The atmosphere and decorations remind Donna and I of Disney World's Animal Kingdom.  If you visit the restaurant, you'll find a strong vegetarian/vegan menu along with a normal gulf coast selection.  The serving size is rather large.  And it's pricey.  Donna and I plan to sample the dessert menu the next time we visit.

Please don't confuse our description of the restaurant with that of the zoo.  We're told there are different world areas represented in the new zoo.  And don't forget, the new zoo is five times larger than the original Gulf Coast Zoo.

So the that's the highlight of our past week.  I hope you enjoyed the football games.  Until next week, David