At the Zoo

Originally, our Labor Day plan was to go to the beach one last time.

But this Wisconsin summer refused to break character even for a day.

This has been the summer of "no, not today." It seems like every time we want to do something, the weather doesn't cooperate. It was very rainy so we only swam 3 times all summer. Then the rain brought out copious amounts of mosquitoes. Huge ones. Bloodthirsty, merciless, nasty bugs. With a ravine in our backyard, we were basically a mosquito hatchery. So playing outside has not been fun for us unless we had doused ourselves with Deep Woods Off. When the choice is between loading my kids full of DEET or suffering more bites than we can count, I'll pick the DEET every time. When they are adults and their nerve endings are fried and they can't remember their own names from exposure to DEET, maybe I'll regret that decision. Anyway, we haven't done a lot of things that we usually do in the summertime because of the bugs. Between bugs and weather, we have become flexible. So when the weather called for overcast skies and cool temperatures on Labor Day, we weren't all that surprised.

Fortunately, my friend Michelle thought of a perfect alternative: the Milwaukee Zoo!

We had never been, but had heard great things, so we were anxious to check it out.

It was one of the best zoo experiences I have ever had. The cool temperature was perfect for all the animals. They were downright frisky!Lucy has had a fascination with giraffes lately. She has a binky with a giraffe on it and I recently pulled out her long-sleeved pajamas with a giraffe on them. She loves to point and say "giraffe." But I'm not sure we were ready for the real thing. She just stared and didn't say anything. I think she didn't know that they were so big. It couldn't have been because there was anything wrong or scary - these were the most beautiful giraffes I have ever seen. I especially loved the white one in the background. Now Lucy prefers tigers.
Anna was doing her best elephant impersonation, but she didn't know that someone was watching her...
Next thing we knew, the elephant came right up and tried to get to her. I didn't notice the sign until I downloaded the picture; I was too caught up in the moment. I've never been this close to an elephant!
The Big Cats were especially active. The cheetahs were getting their exercise by running laps around their cage. I don't know why they weren't outside on such a gorgeous day; all I could figure is that the lighting in the cage was particularly flattering and they wanted to be photographed looking their best.

They came right up and stared at Lizzie. Cheetahs have the most determined look in their eyes. The only thing I can compare it to is the look of elite distance runners in a marathon. They look ready for anything and it's like they know how fast they are. Ooh, and so lean.
I love this last picture of the seal show. Please ignore the upper arm tattoo of the guy. I often get distracted by tattoos; I suppose that is their intent. All I could think this time, though, was that in 30 years, that thing is going to be so saggy and blue that he won't be able to wear short sleeves at all. But I digress. What I loved about this display is that the zoo, probably in a cost-saving measure, put the polar bear right next to the seals. The bear kept peeking his head up and smelling the air. I thought it was the meanest thing I'd ever seen. He got particularly antsy when the seal with cataracts was swimming around. It would have been the easiest catch a polar bear ever made and he knew it. I wondered if the bear would rather be in a climate, albeit simulated, close to his natural one, or, like at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, by his cousins, the grizzly and black bears. Which is really the meanest?
Then, at the next exhibit, I noticed a zebra at the very far end of his grasslands display, looking scared for his life. Sure enough, right next to him, and peeking over the wall, was a jaguar recently arrived from Belize. This animal was clearly not used to the zoo and was trying to figure out how to get to the exhibit he called simply "prey." Even in captivity, that zebra was no dummy. He knew his place in the food chain and was not about to get anywhere near that jaguar.

Fortunately, the kids didn't know about predators, having gotten most of their zoo knowledge from the movie, "Madagascar," where a lion and zebra are best friends with a hippo and a giraffe. I love that show, but even more so after seeing the hungry look on that polar bear's face and the way the zebra was trying to find camouflage.

It was a great day. The tigers were wrestling each other (so cool) and jumping up their "trees." The grizzly bears were fighting each other (Kelly had to be pulled away). The penguins were swimming with abandon. We were nearly attacked by Canada geese in a territory dispute. Monkeys were swinging all over the place, and we watched a bird of prey take money from people's hands and put it in a box. The animals were truly in fine form and it turned out to be a really good way to spend the last day of this crazy summer.