Welcome to the Monkey House

Which is a great album by the Dandy Warhols, I must say!

Yesterday was our trip to our local zoo, the Potawatomi Zoo. We picked up Ken’s Mom and her friend Yvonne, and headed out. It was a blazing hot day, and I was very grateful for all the trees at the Zoo. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible! The Zoo has been there for many years, and I think the last time I went was when I was in grade school (or maybe junior high) and we took a field trip there. It was a pleasure to go back.

It’s a very small zoo, but it’s a pleasant part of our community, and it seems to get pretty good support. Potawatomi Park is right there by it, and I saw a lot of people picnicking and hanging out there. (By the way, the Potawatomis are the Indian tribe that was in this area; the Pokagon band of the Potawatomis are the ones who built and run Four Winds Casino nearby in Michigan.)

Since it was such a hot day, most of the animals were lounging in the shade, and not active at all. That’s probably what we should have been doing, too, but no...we were walking around the Zoo, looking at the animals lounging! I always love the big cats (it’s amazing to me to see how similar they are to domestic cats in their behavior, and vice versa), the monkeys, and the kangaroos and wallabies are super cute. But my two favorites were the red panda and the river otters.

The red panda (I didn’t take that photo above, but that’s about how our South Bend red panda looked) is really an adorable animal. He was snoozing with his mouth open, and it kind of looked like he was smiling. He has a big bushy tail that looks kind of like a raccoon tail, and just looks really cute and cuddly. Sadly, one of the pair at our Zoo died recently...I think it was the female. But I’ve read that they are getting another one from a different zoo.

The river otters are hilarious. Constantly squirming around, and the Zoo has a nice viewing area for them where you can see them swimming underwater. One was swimming and picked up a rock from the floor of the tank and was playing with it. It was so freakin’ adorable! Squeeee! Judging from the crowd in the viewing area, plenty of other people love the otters, too!

We’ll go back later this summer. My Mom wants to go, and I think she’ll enjoy it. I hope it won’t be quite as hot as it was yesterday, though. Ken’s Mom and Yvonne were troopers, but it really was awfully hot.

After the Zoo, we headed to the Oaken Bucket for a bite to eat. It had been quite a while since we’d been there, and it was great to go back! They are usually credited with having the best burger in town, and that’s what I had to have. Not a big place, and it doesn’t look like much from the outside, but mmm, the burgers are as good as I remember them! We’ll definitely be enjoying that place more often when we want to grab a bite, and Ken’s Mom liked it a lot, too. Next time, I hope it will be milder so we can sit out on the patio, which overlooks the St. Joseph River.

Tomorrow I’m having a late breakfast/early lunch with Cousin Shane at Cira’s Restaurant, a little place that’s been around for ages...but sadly, is closing soon. We’ve always said that we need to get there one of these days, and when we saw the story in the newspaper that it was closing soon, we leaped into action and arranged our date immediately! I’m so happy that it worked out that we can get there before they close, especially since we’re leaving on vacation soon.

After that, I’m going to get busy with laying out clothes for the trip. Time to get into gear!