I had to push Vanessa out of the house on her school day off. Zane wanted to go to the zoo. Vanessa wanted to stay in her PJs at home. I was determined to soak up the warmth and vitamin D before it went away. So we ventured into the tunnel of the unanticipated and enclosed some memories for the day.
The zoo was relatively empty. And although we had to check out our maps, we had no real agenda. We made it to South America and talked about the possibility of Asia, but after 2.5 hours at a relaxed pace, we were done after the spooky house, quick train ride and our lunch with the bears.
Vanessa: "Mom, do you like the fall colors here? Is that why you wanted a picture?"
Deep thoughts were pouring in and out of her head. We like to sit on the back of the train when we can -- the whistle isn't as loud and hard to deal with back there. Vanessa worries a lot about the whistles and so forth, especially when she's tired. (It made me really dizzy this time and I had to take a moment to recover after this ride. Silly Mom.)
Zane was told that licking mushrooms can get him into trouble.
The brown bears had plenty of food. They were fun to watch. And when we went into the polar frontier exhibit, we continued to watch them from the camera inside. We watched them brawl too, up on hind legs.
The polar bears were exceptionally active too. One of the sisters was up on the rock when we first got there. We discovered she was gnawing on a fish carcass. When the beau came near to her, she lunged, growled, and swatted one paw up at him. We decided to sit on a bench and have lunch while we continued to watch the wild activity.
Gotta check our fingers nails and cuticles every time we're at the polar frontier.
One of the funnest opportunities -- feeding the frog our maps.
The nap that followed was good too.
