The family took a trip down to Chicago this past weekend to celebrate nephew Michael’s high school graduation. We had a terrific time seeing family, catching up, eating good food, looking at Michael’s stellar photographs, doing the family thing. On Sunday we went to the Brookfield Zoo, which is probably the nicest one I’ve ever seen (I’ve never been to the San Diego Zoo, which I hear is spectacular).
On the ride back to Grand Rapids Sunday afternoon, Sara and I asked the kids what their favorite parts of the trip were. Lucy said, “Kakalooka,” or some other nonsense word. Ben said his favorite part was swimming in the pool at the hotel.
Then we asked what their favorite animal was at the zoo. Ben said, “I liked the ducks!” Lucy said, “Yeah, the ducks!” Great. Next time, maybe we’ll save the $40 and just drive down the street to Reeds Lake.
Hey Karl…what a coincidence…we went down and spent a day in
Chicago on Thursday. We took a slightly different path than you guys.
First we went to the Field Museum, which has a really cool dinosaur
exhibit among many other delights, then to the Lincoln Park zoo, which
may not be as nice as Brookfield, but it’s free! The only
disappointment was that most of the animals were either napping or
eating by the time we got there. We’ll have to go back next time we go
to Chicago (although now I’d like to check out Brookfield as well).
For now, you spent 40 bucks on a great memory mostly for you and Sara. Next time you go to the zoo with them, it’ll be altogether different for them — and for you. You’ll see them treat it more as a familiar place and they’ll reinforce mamories from their first visit, and build on them — and you’ll be amazed and delighted. They might even begin to appreciate some of those unfamiliar animals. The first time, the only familiar animals they saw were the ducks, probably.