At the Zoo

There was a moment this weekend when the boreal blasts momentarily ceased, and the mercury* climbed out of its basement accommodations.  So we did what we do when the weather is passable outside, but not so pleasant that people actually want to be outside: we went to the zoo.**

 Margaret managed the zoo map (because despite the fact that they can navigate without the map, our children feel it necessary to pick up the paper ones when they come in), and Ellie brought her small globe so that they could check where in the world the animals came from.

We went to the sea lions and seals, where Ellie had a fit when it became clear that Margaret wanted to share in the globe transport responsibilities, but Margaret accepted that Ellie was small and just learning to share, so we moved on.  At the apes, Margaret stopped to stick her fingers in the nose of a statue.

You really haven't visited the zoo until you've done that.

Then she stared excitedly at the baby orangutan which you couldn't see very well because it was completely camouflaged by its mother.

And then they rode the statue.

We went to both the reptile house and the butterfly house after this picture was taken, but they had passed me the globe and the maps and their coats, and so my hands were too full for picture-taking.  This means that I missed a picture of a shirt-sleeve-clad Ellie striding through the cold, shouting "the cold never bothered me anyway" over and over and over and over.  It amused me, and particularly amused the crowd of teenage girls who witnessed it.

*Not that we use any mercury-based thermometers, but I've been given to understand that this is an idiomatic way of referring to the temperature.

** We don't go to the zoo when it is actually nice outside, because that's when everyone goes to the zoo, and we feel that the company of our fellow human beings causes the experience to degenerate quickly.