Do at the Zoo

So last night we went to the Do at the Zoo. This is a big shindig at the Denver Zoo as a fund raiser, in this case to raise money toward their new 10-acre Asian Tropics zone, the next big zoo redevelopment effort (and a very nice effort it looks to be). In exchange for mildly extortionate tickets (I felt very much the a part of the Glitterati of the City when I purchased our “passage”), you get to wander half the zoo for the evening, with all the free booze and food (from “40 of Denver’s top restaurants“) you can handle (all of which the establishments in question are donating and writing off, of course — but, then, we get a write-off on at least a portion of our tickets).

Observations:

1. A hell of a lot of fun. Margie and I had a great time.
2. There were a lot more people there than I expected. I’ve done the Brew at the Zoo event a couple times, but there were easily 2-3 times as many attendees. I’ll be curious to find out how much money was raised ($500K was predicted, which will be doubled by bond money).
3. Unlike Brew at the Zoo, which is centered pretty much around the entertainment pavillion, this event stretched from the train station to the west over to tropics house on the east. Huge! And places were still crowded.
4. We didn’t stand around and watch Starship perform, but there was a very cool couple of Asian drumming and dragon groups making their way around.
5. Though definitely not an event for the hoi polloi, there was a typical mix of clothing. The theme was supposed to be “tropical chic (cocktail attire with a tropical twist),” and that’s what Margie and I went for. But there were people dressed formally, dressed straight from the bank/office, dressed in generic business casual, and dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Didn’t take away from the fun, but it made for some delightfully snarky people-watching.
6. For all of that, we didn’t see any Prominent Figures whom we recognized. Not that we’d recognize many Prominent Figures.
7. It was sprinkling lightly when we arrived — which turned to a downpour in the next 15-20 minutes. As inconvenient as that was (esp. for the restaurants had pushed their tables with decoration and food forward out of their little tents), it made for some nice ice-breaking as people huddled under tents together and … well … talked about the rain.
8. We were stuffed, absolutely stuffed by the time we left. The food was wonderful — tapas, bruschetta, filet-on-a-stick, little tarts with nitrogen-frozen mini-marshmallows on top, vodka tents, tequila tents, whiskey tents, desserts, BBQ chicken skewers, beer tents, more desserts, pepper and sausage bowls, more booze, more food more … We were still full this morning. And past lunch.
9. Watching adults ride the carousel, many with drinks in their hands, was entertaining.
10. Lots of fun. Not a cheap date, but a fun one, and for a good cause. (And many thanks to Jackie for the sitting assist.)

Thoughts for next time (because we’ll definitely do this again):

1. Pace yourself. Everything looks yummy, but only eat the stuff that looks most yummy because, damn, you will see a lot more extremely yummy stuff than you can possibly eat.
2. Turn left, young man, turn left. Everyone veers right at the entrance, so those food tents were a lot more crowded. The areas to the left of the entrance (past the cat houses, the giraffes, etc.) were much more reasonable (and looked just as tasty, though we were stuffed by then).

Good times.