First, it was cold. Not Nebraska-winter cold. More like Seattle. Damp and misty. This actually turned out to be a good thing because if it had been steaming hot, the animals would not have been near as active as they were. We first checked out some bears. The black bear was puddling around in his water hole. He then got out, shook himself off, and waddled right towards us. I wondered how thick and strong the safety glass was--with a running start, Yogi could have smashed right through it. Instead, he ambled on, sniffing the same ground he'd walked on probably a thousand times.
The polar bears were a bit of a disappointment, as they were asleep. The brown bears were perched up on a big rock, looking like big dogs sitting in their yard. The grizzly bear was walking around. Huge, scary claws that wouldn't leave a mark if you got hit by them. Bode seemed to like them.
Next up was the elephants. They were outside, all three of them. Mama, Papa, and little baby elephant. He was so cute--reminded me of Harley. Their trunks are amazing muscles, the way they grab onto grass and feed themselves. The lions and tigers were all sleeping--do the big cats ever move in zoos? Bode pointed out the lions are supposed to go, "Roooaaarrr!" Darn those lions.
I loved the apes. There were scale models of gorilla and orangutang hands and feed. They have some big mitts--double the size of my hands and feet (although I wear a size 8, so maybe their hands are more like Shaq's...) One orangutang was climbing around. I wondered how many pull-ups he could do. The gorillas always remind me of people, with their facial expressions and quizzical looks. I'm expecting them to starting talking ("Get you hands off you me damn dirty human!")
The highlight for Bode (sadly) had to have been the play area. It was this immense climbing/sliding/tunneling structure. Kids were everywhere, running, jumping, yelling, and having a wonderful time. I'm always amazed there are so few collisions. Bode had never shown any climbing skills until today. We watched him try to climb up these levels. He got stuck, and we thought he was packing it in. Then, he saw another kid jump up and lean forward, getting his chest and stomach on the ledge and leveraging his legs up. Bode saw this, and he was off and ascending like a mountain goat. He got to the top and took the big slide all the way down. He loved it. However, as we left, he said, "I need a nap. I played really hard." So the little Jabba wanted me to carry him out of the zoo. This was cute two years ago. It's a horrific workout now :-)
All week, Bode has been having an accident at school. We know right away when we show up to pick him up if he's had one because he'll be in his backup clothes. Yesterday, Ashley picked him up, saw that he wasn't in the clothes he had on when we dropped him off, and said, "Did you have an accident?" Bode answered, "No, Jonah peed on me." Huh? Ashley thought he was confused until Miss Betty explained, "Bode was using the potty, and Jonah suddenly had to go, raced back, and, well..." So our boy was peed on (and all I could think of was Blackthorne and Shogun... :-)
We've no major plans for Memorial Day. I think we're all exhausted, so hopefully we can sleep it. Pleasant weekend.
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