I might have turned 20, but I'm still 2 at heart

Off to the zoo for my birthday!
Woke up bright and early, and drove to Amnéville to go to the aquarium and zoo. When we got to the area that they are located in, we discovered a very interesting thing. They were in a touristique area. And there was a bunch of things there. An imax, an ice skating rink, a skiing place (we weren't sure how that worked), restaurants, and all sorts of other fun places.
The aquarium was a bit of a bust...tiny, and a lot of the animals were missing...
But the zoo was AWESOME...and expensive. Happy Birthday to me!

The zoo has something like over 2,000 animals in it. And there a bunch of babies born there every year! We saw a baby hippo, white leopard, wallaby, and many other youngsters that had been born in 2009.

But the best part, was the spectacle de rapaces (raptor spectacle). Oh. My. Goodness. Call me medieval, but it was hyper-cool.
It started with two guys riding out on horses, and then two people came out with hawks on their arms and they flew to the guys on horses. They did all kinds of awesome stuff. They had hawks, falcons, eagles, owls, even vultures!
They did some tricks. One with a guy on horseback swinging a weather pouch around his head and the bird (never can tell the difference between the falcons, golden eagles, and hawks) would dive at it. The trick was that the man was able to catch the bird with it, by having wrapped the string around it's ankles. It didn't hurt the bird, it's not like it went crashing to the ground. It just flew down and landed, and waited patiently for a trainer to come over and pick him up.
Another trick they did was with a guy on horseback pulling a canvas bag behind the horse, and two trainers let two birds go and they dove at it. It was awesome to watch.
They had birds flying all over the arena. They would fly from the middle of the arena, to the wooden walkway above, just a foot from your head.
At one point, one of these massive birds, called a Sea Eagle, was flying up to the wooden railing above the stands, and didn't quite get a good grip on the railing, ended up falling backwards and in the process of catching himself from falling, he landed, literally, on a woman's back sitting in the stands. Not only is this bird MASSIVE with a very big yellow beak, but it has huge talons.
The woman was perfectly fine. She just laughed it off. Especially since the bird hopped off, and was now standing on the bleachers along with the audience. He bounced around for a bit, nibbled at an old woman's shoe, all the while looking around and listening for his trainer to call him. It was hilarious. The best part about it, was that this was all happening two feet away from where my parents and I were sitting.
They also brought out owls. Which was a really cool part. The owls were never out at the same time as the other birds...and we think we glimpsed a moment of why that is.
One of the owls had flown over and was perched by one of the entrances into the arena, and the trainer made his way across the opposite side of the arena and called for him to come over. But the owl was too distracted. He was watching a free bird off in the distance, flying around. He kept looking at the trainer, shifting his weight, and then looking back up at the other bird. He sat there for quite some time. The trainer actually started to walk back across the arena, stopping every so often to attempt to the get the owl's attention. But he was too intent on the other bird. I think he wanted to go after it. But my mom thinks he might have been afraid of it. We aren't sure. But in the end, the trainer finally got the owl to come to him (a whole five feet away).
The "grand finale" of sorts for this show, was that they brought out basically all the birds and had them flying all over the place. It was so awesome. The guys on horseback were also throwing slim bits of meat into the air and the birds would dive and catch them. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

After this, we wandered over to the sea lions and saw a quick show with them and seals. Then there was supposed to be a spectacle with the tigers. And after having seen such an awesome hawking thing, my imagination was running away with itself as to what they would do with the tigers. Unfortunately, the only thing they did was talk about it (in very rapid french) and throw chunks of meat into the exhibit. The tiger was just sorta stalking around, and wasn't all that interested in the meat. So we decided it was time to go home.

This was one of the coolest birthdays! And sunday I got to go to an amusement park and ride Europe's biggest rollercoaster! I'm confused now...did I turn 20, or 10 again? :D