Come Rain or Come Shine: The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst (weather, that is) on Friday night’s annual Summer Safari. When I arrived, the threatening clouds were looming overhead, but that didn’t stop the VIP party from filling up almost immediately as the doors opened.
“It’s just rain, we will survive,” laughed Karyn Locke as she strolled through the new dinosaur exhibit with her husband Steven. The colors of the jungle were alive and well as partygoers like Katie McCarrison, Amy Fitzsimmons, Kristen Petroplus and Amanda Beyer stepped up to the fashion plate.
“This is just one of the most fun events of the whole year. I look forward to this every summer,” said Diana Rath who attended with her family. Guests could get up close and personal with friendly creatures such as a macaw, a Honduran milk snake, a great horned owl, or my personal favorite: Goober, a prehensile tail skink who loved mugging for the camera.
If you were looking for even more adventures, the “pest”-aurant was open in the village serving up goat cheese phyllo tartlets with apricot chutney — and wait for it! — Moroccan spiced crickets. I caught up with co-chairs Anita and Joe Moran who had just come from this unusual restaurant. So what did they think? “I couldn’t do it, but Joe liked the meal worms,” laughed Ms. Moran. So they taste like chicken? “Nope,” he laughed, popping a few out of a box and into his mouth. “More like barbecue.” I’ll have to take your word for it!
#SEEN: Board president Ed Goncz who attended with daughter Paula, Steve and Cynthia Lackey, Donna Hudson, Sally Wiggin, Morton Stanfield, Amy Beyer, Markieth and Kayla O’Neal, John and Dorothy Boyer and the new director of development, Melana Mears.
First Published: July 31, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
