At the Zoo

I do believe it’s true…

Are you looking at that sunshine in those pictures? The incandescent blue of a February sky? It was an awesome, amazing, lovely day at the zoo. I’m so glad we went. The unexplained teenager in the pictures is my daughter’s friend, Stivie (so we’ve got Steve the cat and Stivie the friend–it works for us!) and as a whole?

We had a blast!

The San Francisco Zoo isn’t like other Zoos– many of the enclosures are wide, airy, and damned near like nature intended. That place where the giraffe is gnoshing? That’s a five star hotel for ‘raffes & ‘bras & ‘lopes. The Grizzlies have a lovely enclosure, and the lions? Lots of lion around.

There is a good feeling at this zoo–(okay–not my feet, which are not happy in the best of times) — and there was a lot of laughter this day. Zoomboy, especially, enjoyed himself. Zoomboy is light and quick and can READ–he read EVERY informational plaque out loud to us, whether it was about the tiny Emperor Tamarind or the Blue Dyeing Frog. (He’s got a thing for poison frogs– they’re like his FAVORITE.) Squish was happy (although she got hungry and tired toward the end– four hours at the zoo is a long time) and Chicken had her friend to giggle with. Even Big T, who rarely accompanies us on family gatherings anymore (because he is old enough to stay home and play video games I guess) got into the spirit. He helped with the little kids and laughed with the rest of us–it was an impossible day to stay unhappy. There was just too much sunshine in the air.

Afterwards, we went to Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory (which has never stopped being heinously overpriced, but which we enjoy immensely) and Zoomboy got his ocean fix when we walked to the end of the pier afterward.

The short people slept all the way home. The tall people did some napping as well.

I felt like that cat, when we got home. The one curled up in her owner’s lap, snoozing peacefully with a little cat smile on her face. Remember that cat? Or that Ziggy cartoon? The one with the caption that said:

THIS HAS BEEN A GOOD DAY.

Well, it was.