The Zoo

A school vacation staple used to be going to the Aquarium, or (less often) the zoo. I love animals, and while they're not in their natural habitats and maybe their lives aren't the greatest, I think of it as a way for kids to get to know and admire/appreciate animals in ways they otherwise wouldn't. Maybe this particular animal's zoo life will in some way benefit other animals in the future. Or maybe I just want to believe that. I don't know, it's complicated.

But I like seeing animals and the kids have always liked seeing animals. They're not as young as they once were and we're not as apt to go, but there was a bonus vacation day and it was a really nice one, so at the last minute I said, "Let's go to the Beardsley Zoo." And so we did.

Kids played the road sign alphabet game on the way. I think they made it to H before getting distracted. Jack said to Kate matter of factly, "The game is a way to get you talking about something else."

We ate lunch (got a late start, and getting to the zoo at lunch time didn't seem wise or economical) at Burger King. While I waited at the counter for the food, kids found the table. As always. Burger King made the plastic backs of its seats look so much like cushions that Jack threw himself into one with a crash. "Ouch!" We ate chicken fries.

Got to the zoo, parked, paid. Kids grabbed a map and sat down on a bench together, poring over it. "First we'll go see this...and then this...then we'll come back here to see this..." I stood patiently; could have watched them plan their day together for hours.

The first thing we saw might have been the best thing: the prairie dogs. They were on top of a hill with little burrowed holes in it, and it was hollowed out underneath with clear plastic tubes that kids could get inside and see the animals up close. Jack and Kate both popped in and out and up and down the tubes, grinning and laughing and waving at the prairie dogs. I took pictures. Jack used his phone to take pictures, something that obviously was a reminder they weren't little kids anymore. But we stayed there for a good 15 minutes watching the prairie dogs, and laughing.

Along the way there were these wooden structures with painted otters or peacocks or whatnot, and there were holes cut out for kids to stick their faces through. There were boards where kids could stand against them and compare their "wingspan" to that of an eagle, or condor. Too old? Nope, they did all of them.

We saw tigers prowling about their habitats, pig-like creatures sleeping in the sun, farm creatures snorting at hay and troughs. A leopard with a long, active tail. We saw wolves that looked a lot like our old dog Max, yawning and lolling in the sun. A giant anteater. A red panda that was a highlight (which explains why it took us about half an hour to find, walking circles around the Rainforest exhibit before finally stumbling upon it).

There was an old carousel, which we all rode; Kate on the panda, Jack on the gorilla, me on a horse of some sort. I don't remember the music. I remember trying to get pictures because I wasn't sure I'd be able to remember everything. And finally we'd seen everything, and went to the gift shop where Kate bought a bag of colorful rocks and Jack a bag of colorful magnets. I'm not really sure they had anything to do with the zoo, but that's what caught their fancy.

And then we came home, and I wrote this blog, in hopes that I'll never forget what we did when they were young.