Weather was perfect for the zoo

What a beautiful weekend.

My brother David called on Saturday and asked if we wanted to go to the zoo on Sunday. He said he had asked our brother, Michael, if he also wanted to go. We all agreed to meet at our house on Sunday. It is rare that all of us are off at the same time.

We met at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo parking lot early in the afternoon. Hubby and I hadn’t been there for several years. They had done quite a bit of work on the layout since we last visited and it seemed that the enclosures were bigger.

There was a lot more shade than the last time we were there. Many of the paths were lined with man-made rock formations and tall grasses. There were tunnels that encouraged children to shout to see if their voices would echo.

As far as I could tell everything was designed to accommodate wheelchairs and strollers. Most of the zoos we had visited in the past had very little shade, small cages and at least one set of steps that were impossible for a wheelchair or stroller to navigate,

We walked the paths and sometimes would lose sight of each other as we loitered before the exhibits. The mongooses were taking an afternoon nap. One of them woke up, looked around, then stuck its nose into a paper cone in its enclosure and promptly went back to sleep.

When we got to the lynx I found out that they are a lot bigger than I thought they were. I thought they were the size of a large house cat but they were almost the size of a lioness. 

We stumbled into a presentation about giraffes. They sold lettuce leaves for people to feed the giraffe. The animal would take the greens by sticking out its long tongue and easing the food into its mouth. If they inadvertently touched a child while taking the lettuce the child would squeal. The first time I ever saw a real giraffe was at the Cincinnati Zoo. We fed it marshmallows. I’m guessing that if we got near any of the animals with a marshmallow today, that we would be escorted out of the zoo and told to never return.

The best thing about the afternoon was talking with my brothers. There was no request to repeat something several times because one of us didn’t hear the other. There was no pressure to catch up to the ones who were somewhere ahead of the rest of us. 

I got to hear about what was going on in their lives as we exchanged stories. I bumped my head on one of the fake stones because I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. David laughed at me and promptly told the rest of the group what I had done. 

We left as the zoo was closing. David has a new vehicle and he inadvertently hit the horn button on his keychain. He hit it again in an effort to make it stop but that just made it beep more often. His wife told him to turn it off and then back on. It worked and the horn remained silent.

His new ride is a Jeep. Apparently it is the custom for Jeep owners to leave a rubber duck on any other Jeep they see. David got his first rubber duck at the zoo. None of us had heard of this custom before. 

We met back in Portland for a late supper. Our waiter had the same name as David’s son, Jadyn, although his name had a different spelling. We finished up the day with promises to do this more often. 

Since Mom died we don’t get together as often as we used to. That makes these get-togethers all the more precious. I love hearing what they have been doing and they like laughing at me when I do something stupid. 

We had the perfect weather to explore and catch up with each other.  David is going to need to stock up on little rubber duckies but not until he figures out how not to make the horn go off.