"Let's be spontaneous!" I am sure statements such as these make my long-suffering husband cringe and wonder what sort of mess I am going to get him into this time. But, after a dozen years, he has apparently learned that whatever the mess, it can't be as bad as the pout-session awaiting him if he rains on my parade. He is usually willing to go along with my crazy. This time, all my crazy entailed was a last-minute trip up to Knoxville, to visit the zoo I had been trying to get up and see since we had to skip it on our road trip last summer. Ryan probably breathed an internal sigh of relief and promptly agreed. From decision to departure, we took all of thirty minutes to dress, pack and get on the road. Zoos are one of those anxiety-causing conundrums for me. Are they good? Are they bad? Should we be boycotting them? Should we be supporting them? It was years before I broke down and got a membership to our local zoo, but articles such as this one (and others like it) finally convinced me that good zoos do important work and can be important tools in instilling a love of the earth and all its inhabitants in my children. So, I try to do a little bit of preliminary research about the zoo before we visit, and the Knoxville zoo has some really neat conservation efforts and projects and, while the exotic animals were exciting, of course, I also really loved their emphasis on local wildlife and their efforts to protect it. We arrived just a few hours before they closed so we did not even begin to see everything, but the boys had a great time and the Kid's Cove area, complete with a playground, sand pit, and petting area was a HUGE hit. Rory once again showed us how much he takes things in, by examining and exclaiming over every animal. Animals are this kid's happy place. He should live on a farm, for real. We did not hit every exhibit but we saw some pretty neat animals that are not at our local zoo. My favorite part was spending a long time watching a gorilla mama nurse and love on her baby. Dexter's legs were VERY tired so he spent a lot of time with a bird's eye view from Papa's poor shoulders. Liam was able to read the information and maybe because he was in a new and different place, he spent a lot more time educating himself about the different animals than he usually does at home. He was most excited about the gibbons! Although, perhaps our favorite quote of the day was said as we were on on our way to see the gorillas and chimps. Liam passed a display about the animals and veered off track quickly, exclaiming enthusiastically, "Hey! Look! Buttons!" If that doesn't sum up my tech kid, I am not sure what does. We stayed until the zoo closed and then decided not to rush home and headed to downtown Knoxville for dinner at The Tomato Head and some gelato instead. The weather was perfect, everything was delicious and... I never knew how adorable Knoxville was. Ryan was surprised too! It is definitely going to be a more frequent day trip for our family. We saw a lot of things we would like to check out next time. Thank you for the lovely time, Knoxville! The Haddock family will be back!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WHO AM I?
I am Michelle: a wannabe hippie in love with a bonafide geek. We also spawned. I spend my days with our four wild, beautiful boy children and I overshare about our life online because I am a Millennial and that is what we do.
|