wild kingdom

So, thanks to a fantastic gift of a zoo membership from Mimi and Papa B., we went to the zoo yesterday. It was great- Henry is finally getting more interested in animals, talking about them more, and asking to see certain animals. It was beautiful weather and not terribly crowded although we discovered that apparently Friday is the day when they allow large wild packs of the species homo sapiens, class Elementaricus schooliae to roam free and feral in the zoo. Here are some highlights:


Henry got a ride on a gorilla! It was pretty tame.

We discovered a small baby orangutan clinging to his mommy's back. He/She was SOOOO cute! Most of the time, mommy orangutan kept him hidden behind a Cheerios box, for reasons unknown.

This meerkat was very interested in escaping. He didn't seem scared of the man-cub on the other side of the glass. I also discovered, most unpleasantly, that meerkats are carnivores! There was a plate of chicks and fish out for them.

Here is the one-year-old boy elephant, named Tamani, nursing! That poor mother elephant can't even eat a meal by herself. I guess even mother elephants have to multi-task!

Henry made friends with this goat. And then the goat tried to rub his head on Henry's leg. At least we got out of there with all clothing/limbs intact.

In a completely unrelated, but equally if not more interesting story: Last night we went to the opening of the new play at the theatre where Timon works. We were chatting with the new light-board operator and his wife, and their friend who they brought. It came up in conversation that I am a youth pastor, which got a high-five from the friend. I asked if she was also in that line of work and she said she helped out at her church. I knew there was a girl on the passenger list for my Greece trip from her town and I thought well, there's no way it's her or even someone she knows. I decided to ask anyway, "You aren't by any chance going to Greece on Monday, are you?" to which she replied, "No, but my roommate is!" We are not only on the same trip, but on the same flight from the same airport heading to JFK Monday morning! Crazy, huh? We didn't even need 6 degrees to get to each other. Weird.