Playing at the zoo!

at Two Writing Teachers!

Sunday was my birthday!  Now I don't know what most 28-year-olds do on their birthdays, but I'm absolutely still a kid at heart.  The sun was beaming down, warm June-like breezes were swirling in the air, and I wanted to do something FUN for my birthday.

"Let's go to the zoo!!!" I announced.  Husband rolled his eyes and grinned, pretending to complain that he didn't want to get that tired out...

We're lucky enough to live ten minutes away from one of the best zoos in the country, and I grew up spending countless sunny days there.  Weekend programs as a two-year-old, week-long summer camps every year of preschool and elementary school, and finally summer-long volunteering from ages 13-18.  I know the zoo as well as my own house and the animals as well as my own friends!  I've petted a rhino, slept over and seen the wolves run after-hours on night hikes, held millipedes and Madagascan cockroaches while encouraging visitors to touch them, spent afternoons surrounded by kangaroos, and held kestrels and screech owls with a falconry glove to advertise for the bird show.  I know the names and quirky personalities of goats, eagles, and elephants.  At every exhibit, I have favorite animals to look for, little-known facts to tell whoever will listen, and special anecdotes heard straight from the keepers.

Friends will tell you that going to the zoo with me is like going with a personal tour guide.  Family members will tell you not to go to the zoo with me unless you want to spend the whole day and wind up completely exhausted!

"We can just go for a little while... we don't have to see every animal..." I always tell myself.  But you never know what the animals will be doing!  Really, the only thing that makes me leave the zoo is a time limit.  Luckily, on Sunday we had one because we had to be back in time for my birthday dinner.

This time, the biggest treat was the polar bears.  I'm glad we didn't skip them, even though it was almost time to go, Husband's feet were dragging, and he had already insisted we sit down while eating our ice cream instead of seeing more animals!  One polar bear was having a riot in the water, splashing and thrashing and playing with a giant ball.

"my ball!"

He threw the ball.  He dove down under water and came jumping up at the ball.  He flicked the ball with his nose.  He curled up on top of the ball and tried to make it sink, only to have it flip him over because it was too buoyant.

"Come here, ball!"

He was just like a huge kid... or my dad, who's like a huge kid... playing in the pool! 

Sploooooosh!

push-off!

As if that wasn't fun enough to watch, our zoo has a really cool feature in the polar bear exhibit where you can actually go under part of the tank and watch the bears swim from underneath.  So we went down and watched him cavort from below as he dove and swam.

He chased fish, played with the ball, floated on his back, and did flips.

At one point, he even grabbed a big rock from the bottom of the tank, brought it onto the ceiling of our viewing place, walked around in the shallow water above us to find a good spot for it, and set it down right on the ceiling!

"Hmm, is this a good spot for this rock?"

Can you think of a better way to spend a sunny day?