Went North: Part V

I took exactly zero pictures on Tuesday. It was pouring down rain and cold. And perfect. After four days in the lake, the rain provided a lovely change in the action. We pulled out games, played with the toys at Gma and Gpa’s, watched a movie, and generally chilled out. The girls and I even snuck in haircuts at their favorite salon (they claim they are now GR haircut people).

We were veerrrrry non-committal about a return date home (it's possible Gma was getting worried we'd never leave!), but were tossing around Thursday as the day. I was off all week, but Mike was trying to balance work and vacation (the theatre was quite needy while he was technically out of office). Everyone was really hoping for one more lake day before we went back south. However, Wednesday, while not rainy, was also not a terribly warm day. We decided it probably would not be the most fun lake day. But after all day inside on Tuesday, we wanted to do something.

After a lot of research and flip-flopping, we decided to take the gang to the Safari North zoo in the Brainerd lakes area. It was just under a 2 hour drive (each way … hence the flip-flopping). The kids weren’t particularly excited about the drive, but under 2 hours is also pretty easy in context – so off we went, with a brief stop for lunch on the way.

The zoo was busy – but everything was outside, which made it feel not so crowded. We walked in, Mike said "Dec, look at the cheetah" - and the look on D's face right there was worth the price of admission. It took us around 2.5 hours to walk the whole zoo. Favorites were feeding the giraffe (the nicest man in front of us bought a cup of carrots and then gave each of our kids several sticks so they could feed the giraffe too. We were going to buy a cup as that was the thing D was most excited about, but it was just so kind of a complete stranger), hanging out with the tortoises, and feeding birds in the bird enclosure.

Facts about the highlights. Giraffes' tongues are black. And long. Dec was all in on the giraffe feeding. Quinn was medium in. Fiona took some cajoling, but was happy that she did it once. D would have stood there all day. Tortoises are so cool. And we saw one poop - which makes a 7-year-old boy laugh uncontrollably. I did not go in the bird enclosure, thankyouverymuchbirdsareterrifying, but Mike happily dropped several dollars on birdseed covered sticks. When you held them, you ended up covered in birds. Legit covered. I was terrified from outside. Dec was not into it as the bird's feet scratched his arms. He was, however, happy to stay in the bird house and watch Mike and the girls feed the birds. The girls loved it and repeatedly said it was the highlight of the day. 

We grabbed Wendy's frosties on the drive home and made it back just in time to head to Auntie's for a pizza party with the visiting Texas relatives. Cousin Parker even let the kids control his drone ... and we have a great video of Fiona accidentally running it into Auntie's garage! 

We looked at the weather forecast for the next day, looked at the Texas cousins, and thought "why not stay one more day?" Then we tucked delighted kids into bed while promising them one more trip the cabin.