Yesterday (MLK, Jr Day) was an unexpected day off for me. When our district set our calendar for the year, it was a Professional Development day of meetings. However, due to all of the budget craziness, teachers in my district did not get a raise or get to move on the pay scale again this year. So, as a compensation, the union negotiated for us to get MLK, Jr Day off. I am sure that they communicated this with us at some point, however, I totally missed the memo until last week, when we got a reminder email - an extra day off! Since I had planned to already accomplish my necessary weekend nuttiness in the normal 2 days, I hadn't planned tasks for Monday, so it was an entire UNSCHEDULED day! L and I decided to take advantage of it and go to the zoo in Wichita - the weather was supposed to hit 47 degrees, so we figured it would be fairly comfortable. The day before had a high of 32 and today's high of 32 was already hit early this morning, with the temperature falling now. There were only about 20 cars at the whole zoo, and it was an amazing experience to roam the zoo with hardly any other people there. We spent 3 1/2 hours there and Lauren says it's the best zoo visit she's ever had.
We got to feed the ducks, something Lauren doesn't usually do, since she's frightened of them. When she was tiny a duck bit her while she was feeding bread to them, although I'm not sure that "bit" is actually the technical term... :) Anyhow, she typically avoids them, but they were very calm and no one else was around, so she got brave and knelt down and let them pick the little pellets out of her palm. Very empowering for her.
We got to linger in the American Farms barn, looking at horses and donkeys and mules and longhorns, etc, etc. They were all scratching themselves yesterday, much to Lauren's amusement. It's funny how the little things can bring such big giggles.
Then we went to the jungle, Lauren's favorite place at the zoo. Lauren has long been fascinated by bats, and the jungle has a large group of bats. When Lauren was little, she used to stand under them and try to squeak to them at levels that they could sense with their echolocation (or some such explanation), but she's outgrown that stage. However, we now stand under them and try to communicate with them through significant eye contact, apparently. They are really cute little things - fruit bats -with sweet faces and inquisitive eyes, and the cutest twitchy ears. The jungle was so empty of people that we got to see things we've never seen on any of our prior visits - birds, fish, acouchi skittering around all over. Lauren was most mesmerized by the fish, though. There is a tunnel you walk through, where the water is on both sides of and above you. Often, it is packed with people and we don't spend much time in it. However, we meandered through this time, and got to see quite a show. Lauren had stopped by a particular window pane, and an enormous catfish seemed to take it upon himself to provide a show for her. He swam in gigantic circles in front of her, over and over, for nearly the entire time she stood there. For some reason, all of the big fish were on one side of the tunnel, and it was interesting to see them follow swimming patterns and run into each other and hit against the glass occasionally.
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