A Perfect Day

It all started with a trip to Fort Wayne. Well, actually, it started with our memberships to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. Which started with Tara searching for things to do with a toddler. But I'm getting behind myself.

Our memberships include reciprocal agreements with other organizations including zoos and museums all over the country. We decided that Fort Wayne Children's Zoo would be a nice place to visit, so we packed our lunch and headed west. We got there in 1 1/2 hours (including a stop to fill the gas tank) - when we got there, we found the parking lot overrun with school buses! Yes, it's the end of the school year, and the kids are on field trips.

So instead of starting directly in the zoo, we went to the park first, then we ate our lunches.

Did I mention that the temperature started in the upper 50s and climbed through the day into the upper 60s? Perfect weather, if you ask me.

After lunch we braved the crowds, and we found that by going straight to the back of the zoo, we could avoid most of the screaming masses. Works every time. Jonathan really enjoyed seeing the animals - and I think Andrew did, too. But what Jonathan really enjoyed was getting to spend his birthday money on rides! We did the carousel (he didn't want one of the moving animals), the dugout canoe ride, and the TRAIN! (Oh, did I mention that on our way to the Zoo, we were stopped by a real live train - and we were first in line, so Jonathan got to see it close up!). Of course, as the day went on, the school kids all left, which was nice. The parking lot was nearly empty by the time we went to the car.

Instead of heading straight home, we headed for the mall. The boys were so exhausted that they fell asleep immediately in the car as soon as we left the zoo, so we didn't mind driving around a little bit. We stopped and toured some RVs that were for sale (if anyone has an extra $200,000, we'd like to buy one. Oh, yeah, double that with today's gas prices). Then we went to the mall.

Jonathan was still rather groggy and didn't want to eat, but Burger King has strawberry applesauce, which went over extremely well. And I had some suckers to use as bribes. After we ate, we headed for the car. Since Jonathan wanted to play first, Tara and Andrew headed in that direction while we played. We got out to the car to find no Tara and Andrew, so we went back in and waited for them by the fountain (always a good place for Jonathan). It turned out that Tara was in the shoe store trying on sandals (her 13 year old Birkenstocks have seen better days). She had narrowed down her choice to Birkenstock or Keen. I broke the tie and chose the Keen sandals, since they were going to be $25 cheaper... except that the ones she wanted were an "older" model (last month's?), so they were on sale... The salesguy said they were $80something, but they rang up at $60! What a terrific deal! Below is a picture of them - only she chose purple (naturally). She was so happy with them that she wore them home and almost slept in them.

After the mall, we went to Toys-R-Us to play with their toys and since it was just Jonathan's birthday, they gave him a balloon and a crown (he tore the crown to shreds on the ride home). And they had a huge Thomas the Train set to play with.

We all had a great time, and it was a perfect day.