Failed Zoo Attempt

When you have a zoo membership, and the weather forecast calls for sunny and 65 in the dead of winter, it would be dumb to not call up your closest zoo-loving friends and plan an spontaneous trip.  The conditions being such earlier this month, I gave my mom a call and made some plans!   They would come up after dad gone done his early AM baking shift and meet me at the zoo. 

Note to self: even the most spontaneous plans should be a little bit planned.  We arrived to find ourselves the ONLY ones in the parking lot. Good fortune, I thought optimistically.  Nope. Bad timing. Turns out the zoo is only open Fri - Mon during the winter and they don't make exceptions for days that are sunny and nearly 70. 

Insert tremendous disappointment. 

Followed by very-nearly-as-fun and even-more-spontaneous plans to go to the less formal "zoo" known as the Duck Ponds.  Our 2nd use of our zoo membership would have to wait. 

Fortunately, ducks are pretty much Papillon's favorite animal, and there are lots more ducks at the ponds than there are at the zoo. So it was an upgrade as far as Papillon was concerned.

The ducks at this pond are very "friendly".  They came at us before we had even fully gotten out of the car. They could sense we brought snacks.   And they WILL eat it out of your hand...
...as evidenced by this video. Papillon found this to be remarkably entertaining.
After we ran out of duck food, we went on a little walk.  With the help of the plastic bag left over from feeding the ducks, we turned it into a variable nature walk. Papillon collected rocks (mostly gravel), sticks (mostly bark) and even a pine cone.  She enjoyed dumping them out then putting them back in ad nauseum. It was her adorable way of sneaking in a break on the walk cause her little legs were bushed but she refused to let anyone carry her.  Little Miss Independent. 

Here are Papillon and Nana exploring a large tree stump.

You know the weather is nice when the spring flowers are blooming before February has really even begun...

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