Zoo March

Jack and I went alone to the zoo on March 29. As we set out, Jack says "The giraffes will be so happy." We always visit them first; today one spread his front legs and bent down to nibble the grass. At the farm, we made friends with Irene, who cares for the large animals. She was concerned about an elderly pony who wasn't eating. She added some water to the feed and the pony ate it. Irene explained that she will mix some dirt and hay with the horse poop and compost it for use in the rose garden in Golden Gate Park. Jack asked Irene if the bull had ever gotten his horns stuck in a tree trunk (as happens in one of his books). Irene said no, but it could happen. We met Marjorie, the Llama and learned she eats something similar to Jack's oatmeal. Marjorie likes the smell of babies and she came right up to sniff Jack, who told her "Go eat your oatmeal." By this time Jack had already swept up the wood shavings in the barn and hauled them outside in the little wheelbarrow. Irene invited us to visit Marjorie any time we come.

As we walked across the zoo, we saw a backhoe and then a fork lift moving large crates up to the roof of the former elephant house with an arm that extended. The grizzly bears new home is almost finished and they have it blocked so we couldn't see any of the construction.

Jack really wanted to go to the cafe even though I had brought our lunch. He'd seen someone with a bag of pretzels. A small bottle of apple juice and a small bag of pretzels was $5.00 even with the member's discount. Next time I'll buy them ahead at a grocery store. After lunch we rode the train and then walked back past the penquins. There's a little statue of an elephant that Jack really loves. He tried to give it a pretzel saying, "Have a pretzel, elephant, we bought them at the cafe." He still had the energy to run off in the opposite direction from the exit but once we reached the car, he fell asleep almost as soon as we drove off.