Last weekend my daughter and I had the privilege of going to see Jack Hanna speak at the Macomb Center for the Performing arts. What does this have to do with shopping? Jack shit, that's what. Except for the fact that we visited the new Partridge Creek open-air shopping mall beforehand. This mall is part of the newer trend of outdoor malls set up like a downtown but with high-end department stores as anchors. Partridge Creek has a Parisian and a Nordstroms on the way. It also has an Apple store where the kid and I got lost for a good long time. But enough about that. I want to tell you about the show.
I am always amazed by the number of people who don't know who Jack Hanna is. He is the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and has made numerous appearances on the David Letterman Show and the Maury Povich Show to name a few. His show "Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures" has always been a favorite with my child and he has a new one that I have just started watching called "Into the Wild" which is good for kids as well, but a bit more adult oriented. This man has made it his life's goal to teach others about the wonderful creatures with which we share our world. His show is a combination of speaking, video and of course the animals. An image of each creature is projected onto the background so that there are no bad seats in the house. Every person has a great view and no one misses anything.
As we are located fairly close to Columbus, we get to see some animals outside of the norm. He started the show with a baby snow leopard and ended with a majestic cheetah. Some of the more interesting creatures along the way were the beautiful hyacinth macaw, the binturong (otherwise known as the bearcat) and some huge madagascar cockroaches that he put on an unsuspecting audience member. His talk was inspirational and I think it outlined for kids that you can be anything you want to be and realize your goals if you stick with them. Jack's goal when he was a child was to be a zookeeper and he never wavered. He is now the most famous zookeeper in the country, if not the world.
You can visit his website to see when he is coming out your way at Jack's Website There are only a few shows coming up, located mainly in Florida and southern California, but I'm sure after the holidays are over the traveling bug will bite again and he'll be back on the road. Be sure to check out the rest of his site as well. He has an online store (see- I can related anything back to shopping). I haven't purchased anything from it yet, but might in the future. It is a little disappointing that none of his videos are available there. My daughter loved his baby animal video when she was a little one. If you happen to come across any of the videos in your shopping adventures, they make great gifts for young ones who are interested in animals. Especially the ones with baby animals (who doesn't love a baby animal). See, more cool shopping info from yours truly!!!
Take care!!