the ocean

We took my nephew to the zoo this past weekend. I've always kind of ragged on the Lincoln Park Zoo for having a fake farm in it, since I grew up near actual farms and didn't need to watch DePaul interns pretend to know how to milk cows. But it turns out to be a lot of fun with a kid! Jack followed his first instinct around all the animals, which was apparently to hector them in unintelligible baby-speak. It was kind of like if Mussolini were an adorable tot rather than a power-crazed monster. And there were all sorts of fun things for him to play with, like giant tractor tires and kid-sized egg shells, and even a live turkey for petting, which I was not going anywhere near but Jack did not seem concerned about. We could have a future farmer of America here, if I weren't convinced that corporations will be owning 95% of all farms.

We also did the main zoo, which was a lot more action packed than I am used to. It seemed like all of the animals were actually moving around and making noises, as opposed to their usual approach of napping somewhere that is largely obscured from view. Jack seemed largely disinterested in the camels and the zebras, but the tiger definitely got his attention, although I was very much nervous about a potential Harambe situation. And the penguins really seemed to captivate him, until he became completely exhausted with no warning whatsoever and began screaming his head off. I am sure that was a lot of fun for my sister and the entire Clark bus on their way home.