Sunday, April 4, 2010

It's (Another) Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Happy Easter!

For the first time ever, Tony and I didn't have anything planned for the day. Two of the boys are out of town, and Son Donald told us when he came to dinner last week he had other things he needed to do today. After Mass in the morning, another beautiful sunny day awaited. We packed a cooler with the sandwich we'd bought yesterday, side dishes, drinks, and the Black Bean Brownies. Our destination was Forest Park and the St. Louis Zoo.

Since we've always hosted or attended a dinner with the extended family on Easter, I didn't know how much traffic there'd be in the park today. Turns out there was a lot. After navigating a short traffic jam, we ended up parking by the Art Museum (about a ten minute walk). We were hungry, so we sat on a bench at the top of Art Hill and ate lunch. The sandwich was great, but the brownies were disappointing; they almost tasted too healthy. After we put the cooler back in the car we walked to the Zoo.

Today, in addition to all the other regularly-scheduled activities, the Zoo was hosting an "Eggtravaganza!". Twice each hour the zookeepers provided enrichment "egg hunt" activities for a different animal and were on hand to answer questions. We only saw one of them, for the Komodo Dragon, but it was fun to watch. The keeper walked into the cage, deposited three paper-mâché egg-shaped piñatas with large holes cut in the top, and left. The eggs were filled with Komodo Dragon treats. We watched as the Dragon stick its head into an egg, pulled out a fish, and swallowed it whole.

Tony and I saw a lot of the exhibits, but after a couple of hours in the sun it got a bit warm for the jeans and long-sleeved shirt I'd chosen to wear. I knew it was definitely time to go home when we started making wrong turns on the winding pathways and kept winding up back where we started. We left the Zoo and walked back to the car. I'd thought there were a lot of vehicles in the park when we got there, but there were substantially more parked along the sides of the roads as we drove out of the park.

I guess we weren't the only ones with a good idea today.

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