Afternoon at the Zoo

We had a great day out with Nana and G-da at the Jackson Zoo. Despite a sudden downpour in the middle of our outing that left us drenched, we were able to see lots of animals (which meant lots of new words for Julia!).



The elephants were particularly popular and so was the gift shop where Julia picked up pretty much everyitem in the store and tried to convince G-da that she really needed it all while I tried to convince him that she didn't.

My favorite thing on our zoo trip was not one of the animals but something I saw on the drive in. For those of you who don't live in or know Jackson, a note about the drive into the zoo. It's not in the best part of town (actually, it's in just about the worst part of town). Driving there you leave the nice parts of Jackson, go through the slightly dilapidated parts, and continue into the really, really, bad area where every other house is boarded up (either to signal its status as "condemned" or simply to keep things out where windows have been broken and never replaced...or both) and house numbers/gang signs/"do not enter"/etc. are spray painted directly onto the walls of the houses. [I know y'all are now questioning my parenting that I would take small children through all this, but it is a fun zoo and we all went there as kids and somehow survived].

Anyway, on this wonderfully scenic drive to the zoo there is one building still fairly in tact that instead of graffiti is painted with big clowns & teddy bears. This building proudly announced itself as the "ROMPER FUNK FUNTIME CHILDCARE CENTER". Complete with bars on the window and a big smiling concrete teddy bear at the door. So if anyone's looking for a new daycare centre...