at the minnesota zoo

I have fairly mixed feelings about zoos.  In my seventh-grade PETA days, I would have stomped around, declaring I was very much so against them!  I stand with that self in being against animal testing in beauty products and really squirmy at the idea of circuses (thank goodness for Cirque de Soleil!), and I am still hesitant about zoos, but:  I think a zoo needs to be well-managed and educationally designed.  I bring my children to this zoo because I know they swoon over animals (Maya's first television love was Diego and now it is the Wild Kratts; her favorite toys are always the animal ones) and because I want to expose them to different creatures that we might not otherwise see up close.

Of course, on this visit, we did spot a few animals not caged up, including this bitty snake that took shelter between the wheels of Finn's stroller!  We also giggled at a chipmunk whose pouches were absolutely bursting-full.  Maya did get a chance to pet a hissing cockroach, felt a moose pelt, and see an up-close hedgehog (she couldn't pet that hedgehog, but they had a pelt she could touch that was less a risk of getting her!).  Finn is pretty chill when we visit the zoo, content to take in the sights.

We met my old friend Emily, whom I met through teaching high school so many years ago, and her sweet kids:  Olivia, who was born about two weeks after Maya, and her son Nate who is about four months younger than Finn.  Another strange fact:  her husband and my husband worked in the same building in St Paul for a good while, before Pat's business moved next door.  

 We went down the Minnesota Trail, which is my favorite area.  I'm fond of anything indigenous and learning more about it:  plants, cultures, creatures.  The lynx mama had her wee babes, so Maya got to fawn all over those, and we lingered in that area as its covered and we had a thunderstorm blow through.  I personally love (safe) storms of any sort and having that cozy protected feeling, but Maya and Finn are still a bit bewildered by it all.  So we sang a bit in the tunnels and told stories about the animals, who were chasing each other around and wrestling and preening and the like.