You Went Penguin Hunting in Tulsa, OK?

Penguins can be found in New Zealand, Australia, Antarctica and... Tulsa, OK!

Not those type of penguins above (although, there are some found in the zoo), but these type of pengins.

All over the city are statues of penguins, dressed up in all sorts of finery, and themed outfits. So, what's the story behind the penguins?

The Tulsa Zoo was working to build a penguin exhibit. In order to do this, they needed a fund raiser. Tulsa used this unique idea to get things rolling on this project. Local businesses would donate a certain amount of money to the zoo's campaign and they would receive a 6-ft tall sculpture to decorate as they pleased matching their business or interests. There were around 100 penguins involved in this project. Unfortunately, now, there are less than 50 on display.

Let me tell you the story of my husband and I and our penguin hunting adventure in Tulsa, OK.

 Once upon a time, my husband and I were talking about date nights and how we really needed to have a date night. Unfortunately, our budget for date nights was pretty much non-existent. Then, I remembered a professor of mine from college. As a part of his Basic Economics class, he required his students to go on one "FREE" date a month and write a report over it. It was fun trying to come up with creative dates where no money was spent. I shared this with my husband and we began to think on what we could possible do for free.

It was my husband's idea to go penguin hunting. We had been living in Tulsa for a few years and noticed all the artistic sculptures around the city. We decided it would be fun to see how many we could find on our own without hints, clues or directions. So, we packed a picnic lunch and set out to explore our home town (city). 

I remember it was windy and cold that day, but we were bound and determined to enjoy ourselves in spite of the weather. It did make our pictures a little.....windblown. 

Still, the wind could not deter us or keep us from our mission. We hunted and found about 20 of them without help or hints. But after that, we got stuck, so we broke down and looked them up online. (https://localwiki.org/tulsa/Penguins)

We ate our lunch, and headed out to find the rest. We didn't get to all 50 in one day but it was a great date. After we finished our penguin hunting, we went home and watched "Mr. Popper's Penguins" to conclude our evening. 

Here are my two favorite penguin hunting pics from our trip.

This is a great, budget-friendly way to explore Tulsa, Ok. How many penguins can you spot?