The Garden School Tattler

It could not be a busier time than it is right now at school. Just getting ready for our first long excursion kept me hopping night and day. I wake up all night wondering how we are going to do this, or that, or how well this will work etc.

Friday's trip to Louisville was a lot of fun, and worked out fairly well. It's a difficult zoo to maneuver because the picnic spots are at the end of the zoo, which ultimately means returning to the entrance and carrying food through the zoo.

When we arrived, we broke into groups and took off for about an hour. My group saw the white - and he was very white - alligator, and the tigers ( there was a cub) and the baboon, and the bird house which is lovely, and the dragon, and the penguins who were in their "private moment."

We climbed the hill and saw the snow leopard and the wolves, and then went up to the polar bear exhibit which was closed. Apparently, the polar bears were miserable in the heat, and were moved to another zoo. I hope for the summer. You know polar bears get hot at 40 degrees below zero, so our summers here would be most horrible for a polar creature!

We ran around like nuts looking for the zoo train to take us back to the entrance for lunch, and the kids really liked that. It went through a couple of tunnels and everyone loved the ride.

Then it was on to lunch. It was so hot, most of us wanted a cool drink and not much to eat. We tried a new dish - a pasta salad, and the kids ate more of this than the adults.

We then went to the water park to cool off. It was great fun, and most of the kids came out drenched. After somewhat figuring out shoes and socks, we took off to see the rest of the zoo. There was a nice breeze on the top of the hills, and we tried to hydrate with water as often as we could.

We saw the gorillas, the hippo was no where to be seen; we saw the camels, the elephants, the rhynos, and the giraffes. There was a family of some kind of deer with a new baby. They were out on their lawn enjoying the sun.

Louisville is a marvelous zoo, and I think aside from the heat, the kids had a good time. We had a long cool drink of lemon lime soda before we got onto the bus, and then it was straight home.

This week we will go to our own zoo and picnic in Newburgh.