Travels with Joy - Part 3 The Zoo, Snow & Relatives
One of the great things about big cities is that they feature the best of everything. In my little world, we offer the best we have, but it is nothing compared to what you can find in a city like Chicago. Such is the case with the zoo we visited on day 3 of our travels to the flat lands of Illinois. There are two zoos in the Chicago area. One is the Lincoln Park Zoo located in Lincoln Park on Lake Michigan right in downtown Chicago. The other zoo is located in a suburb of Chicago called Brookfield, hence the Brookfield Zoo. Since I had not visited the Lincoln Park Zoo since my childhood, I planned to take my children there for a visit. The weather did not agree. It was sunny and quite cold that day, and the wind off Lake Michigan was sure to make our day miserable. So, we were off to the Brookfield Zoo.
Animals in the Brookfield Zoo live, for the most part, in habitats to which they are familiar, and zoo management has done everything it can to make the animals feel at home. For instance, when you visit the alligators, you find them in "The Swamp" a large building made to look and feel like the swamps found in the southeastern part of the USA. Frogs, birds, alligators, and rodents from that part of the world are all housed in the same building. Since it was still quite cold outside, we were able to go from one animal house to the next and enjoy our visit, get quite an animal education and not freeze to death. The highlight of our day, I suppose (apart from our sore feet from walking), was the sea lions who put on quite a show for us when their keepers gave them their daily ration of fish. For me, the highlight was my youngest directing us from one place to the next via the zoo map. Her final destination???? The playground.
Exhausted and happy to have spent a pleasant day visiting the animals, we returned to my sister's home and had a good night's sleep. We were awakened the next morning to a surprise--snow! Snow was coming down so heavily that it was hard to see more than 50 yards away. Glad that we hadn't postponed our visit to the zoo for day 4, we settled back and enjoyed the scenery. By the time it finished snowing, 6 inches had fallen. My children, having never seen that much snow in their lives, were a bit overwhelmed. We had not prepared for snow in April, so the girls were without gloves, boots and hats. Plastic bags over the feet made good protection for shoes, and their aunt provided gloves. The day ended with a major snowball fight cousins vs. cousins. That night we settled down for a lasagna dinner prepared by yours truly and mom. (We have lasagna making down to a science.)
No trip home would be complete without a visit with the relatives, and in my case a visit with the relatives is like a visit with a tribe, not that my relatives are natives, but there are so many of them. My mother had 3 brothers, and two of them and most of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live nearby. So, we descended on my aunt and uncle. Throughout the day, my aunt, uncles, 1st and 2nd cousins came and went. We ate, we talked, we drank coffee and sodas and we ate some more.
Visiting with relatives is different than visiting with old friends. The uncles' antics as teenagers, great uncle so and so's wife that went crazy and the size, shape and similarity of noses, shoulders and fingers become the main topics of conversation. I love learning more about my family history, and it helps me understand why I am the way I am. I see a little of myself and my parents in the relatives. The truth is that we would probably not make friends with most of our relatives if we met them in different circumstances, but we love them because they are our flesh and blood. And there is always one or two of them that hold a special place in our hearts, because in life outside the family, we probably would be best friends.
Animals in the Brookfield Zoo live, for the most part, in habitats to which they are familiar, and zoo management has done everything it can to make the animals feel at home. For instance, when you visit the alligators, you find them in "The Swamp" a large building made to look and feel like the swamps found in the southeastern part of the USA. Frogs, birds, alligators, and rodents from that part of the world are all housed in the same building. Since it was still quite cold outside, we were able to go from one animal house to the next and enjoy our visit, get quite an animal education and not freeze to death. The highlight of our day, I suppose (apart from our sore feet from walking), was the sea lions who put on quite a show for us when their keepers gave them their daily ration of fish. For me, the highlight was my youngest directing us from one place to the next via the zoo map. Her final destination???? The playground.
Exhausted and happy to have spent a pleasant day visiting the animals, we returned to my sister's home and had a good night's sleep. We were awakened the next morning to a surprise--snow! Snow was coming down so heavily that it was hard to see more than 50 yards away. Glad that we hadn't postponed our visit to the zoo for day 4, we settled back and enjoyed the scenery. By the time it finished snowing, 6 inches had fallen. My children, having never seen that much snow in their lives, were a bit overwhelmed. We had not prepared for snow in April, so the girls were without gloves, boots and hats. Plastic bags over the feet made good protection for shoes, and their aunt provided gloves. The day ended with a major snowball fight cousins vs. cousins. That night we settled down for a lasagna dinner prepared by yours truly and mom. (We have lasagna making down to a science.)
No trip home would be complete without a visit with the relatives, and in my case a visit with the relatives is like a visit with a tribe, not that my relatives are natives, but there are so many of them. My mother had 3 brothers, and two of them and most of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live nearby. So, we descended on my aunt and uncle. Throughout the day, my aunt, uncles, 1st and 2nd cousins came and went. We ate, we talked, we drank coffee and sodas and we ate some more.
Visiting with relatives is different than visiting with old friends. The uncles' antics as teenagers, great uncle so and so's wife that went crazy and the size, shape and similarity of noses, shoulders and fingers become the main topics of conversation. I love learning more about my family history, and it helps me understand why I am the way I am. I see a little of myself and my parents in the relatives. The truth is that we would probably not make friends with most of our relatives if we met them in different circumstances, but we love them because they are our flesh and blood. And there is always one or two of them that hold a special place in our hearts, because in life outside the family, we probably would be best friends.
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