My daughter came into town after driving a little more than 12 hours to get here from North Carolina. And with her were her three children, a 13 year old daughter, 8 year old son, and a 5 year old son. She's not planning on having any more kids, by the way. When she arrived here in Michigan, it was near the end of July 2009 and Michigan was recording one of the coolest summers on record for June and July. I had no problem with that because I wasn't the type who enjoyed hot weather.
My daughter was only here for 6 days and she, my wife and I were trying to figure out where to take the kids for a nice outing. We came up with a picnic. Certainly, a picnic would be nice and memorable we thought. Maybe more memorable for the adults than for the kids. The kids would probably look at a picnic as simply another day at the park while bringing along food. So, we quickly dismissed thoughts of a picnic.
Then visiting our nearest Zoological Park came to mind. It had been several years since my wife and I been to the zoo and our grand kids never been to our local zoological park. I had been seeing some advertisements on TV and newsprint about a couple of new exhibits at the zoo and thought they might be worth checking out. Plus, we figured that the kids would have a better time at the zoo than on a picnic. I remembered the times I was taken to the zoo as child. Those kind of moments seem to always stick in a person's mind.
We then started to consider the cost for 3 adults and 5 children. You see, we also had two other kids with us who lived nearby. Then a thought came to mind to call a friend who work for the city to see if there were any reduce rates to get in the zoo. And a wonderful thing happened, as a promotion to get more people out to the zoo, we were given free tickets. Now the only thing we had to concern ourselves with was the nominal parking fee. Awesome! My wife quickly drove to our friend's office and picked up the tickets and in less than 2 hours later, we were on our way to the zoo. The weather was ideal, with temperatures in the low 80's, low humidity and a nice 5-10 mile per hour breeze. Very lovely.
Being that it wasn't too hot, the animals were more active than they would had been on a scorching hot day. This made the visit even more enjoyable. Going to the zoo to see all the animals laying around doing absolutely nothing is not a lot of fun. The Spring and the Autumn months are ideal times to go to the zoo. We really had a lovely day. I regret, however, that I didn't bring along my camera. These kind of moments you want to make sure you capture to be seen at a later day.
If you're looking for a great outing, you can't go wrong with your nearest zoological park. If there is not a zoo in your local area, find the largest city closest to you and call the tourism office and inquire if they have a zoo.
by Kevin Ellens
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