Zoo Lights

Dan and I decided that a good way to work some of the kinks out of my back (there's been some tragic back pain lately. . . but I'm on the mend. Sincerely) was to soak up some Christmas cheer at the Lincoln Park Zoo Light extravaganza. We soaked up cheer. I got exercise. We ate hot soft pretzels and cocoa and looked at some monkeys. It was a good night.


And Dan has begun his traditional thug-disapproval pose in front of all things cute and Christmasy. It's all for show. He loves the season. But it's so preposterous--this pose for photos at Christmas time--and it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh--which I'm thinking may really be why he does it. Last year, he posed this way in front of such things as a giant blow-up Clifford the Big Red Dog, a redonkulously cute installation of anime panda bear statues and a live nativity creche. Seriously, I know it's weird that I think it's so funny, but I come close to messing myself everytime.

Carousel

The Lincoln Park Zoo carousel gets its own post--because as complicated as I always eventually find visits to zoos, there's nothing complicated or remotely depressing about a carousel.

Except, of course, whatever happened to the brass ring!?!

So many cool critters to choose from for the ride. . .

at the Lincoln Park Zoo you can ride a baboon around in a circle while he eats a banana.

this was my ride--panda eating bamboo

Dan's so "over" the carousel.
He's generally too cool for school in pictures. . . it's one of the many ways he makes my life a funnier and happier thing to live.
(sometime, maybe, you will get to see the pictures from Christmas of Dan being too cool for the Chinese modern toy exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum, too cool for the giant Clifford the Big Red Dog at the Natural History Museum, too cool for the live creche at the Krohn. . . it just kept getting funnier and funnier)

elephant.
(i know all my animal names)

More Catch Up--Zoo

Last summer, realizing that we live in a world class city that we don't take nearly enough advantage of, my husband and I went on a "Staycation"--the new thing that's all the rage in these troubled economic times. We were planning a trip to California. . . but after airfare and hotel costs, we would have had less "fun money" than we would have liked. But stay in Chicago and we could pretend to be rich for a week and do whatever we wanted.

We made a big long list of things we wanted to do--Second City show, museum trips, architectural boat tour, Kuma's Corner, etc.--and we did a lot of it, but we also had a lot leftover. And that staycation reminded us to take advantage of town more. . . that we didn't have to wait for a week vacation to get that done. So, this past weekend we had brunch in town and then walked to the Lincoln Park Zoo and rode the carousel--crossing one more thing off the list. Dan had never been and it was a beautiful spring day and we were lucky to have spent the day out in the sunshine. . .

ape house entryway. . . so stately.

This guy was awesome. He completely freaked the little kid who saw him right before us. There was shreaking and uncontrollable giggling. Stuck right to the glass.

My favorite monkey. He was actually green. Though the apes and monkeys always make me a little sad. All of the zoo makes me a little sad--all of those enclosures. But the monkeys and apes are the smartest (outside of maybe the elephants) and I feel like I look into their eyes and I know that they know. And I wish I could bust them all out.

An animal we don't have to feel badly for. A little blue cow (modeled by Daniel) straight form the belly of the Mold-A-Rama. Eventually we'll have a complete set from all of the Chicago musuems and sites.

Done and Done.