A Great Unexpected Surprise

I was all prepared to spend my weekend alone.– Rob and the kids would be off doing whatever, and my other friend Lorna was up on the slope working her regular rotation, so I planned to just take it easy and relax the days away.

Saturday morning, I didn’t even get dressed until around 11:00, and that was only because I had a tour scheduled at the zoo. That tour turned out to be so much fun – I’m so glad I do them.

When I first got there the admissions booth hadn’t sold any tickets yet, so I thought it would be another day where I go home again – but with about 5 minutes to spare, they sold two and I had somebody to give a tour to after all. They were the nicest couple: a bit older than me and vacationing from New York. They had been all over Alaska in the two weeks they’d been here, and were spending their last day with us at The Alaska Zoo. They were actually interested in plants, too – always a bonus since I am so in to them myself.

You have to check this out: when they were in Seward, they took one of those whale watching cruises out in the fjords and saw a humpback whale breaching multiple times RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOAT! They got video of it and posted it on YouTube even. I was so jealous! In all my years of living here and taking numerous cruises just like that, I’ve yet to see even one breach… and they saw well over 15!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkOAGiYATK0

Sunday afternoon found me sitting in my usual corner table at The Perfect Cup, writing letters and eating lunch. I was just finishing up the last few bites when I heard somebody banging at the window behind me. Surprise! It was Trey, with his father and sister along with him. I had invited them to join me, but really did not think they would.

That was such a great, unexpected surprise!

After they all had a drink and we sat and talked for a while, we headed over to Toys R Us so Trey could get himself the Lego’s he’s been saving up for, only to discover that they cost $150.00. His father told him there was no way he was going to spend that much money for a box of Lego’s, so we went back to my house to see if perhaps Craig’s List had any for sale. Trey was not too happy about it all, but he’s such an easy going kid he soon moved on.

From there, we headed on in to town to the Imaginarium where we hoped to be able to see their new Planetarium. Unfortunately the show was sold out for that day, but we got to see everything else at least. And as an added bonus, I ran in to my friend Kristen (she and I used to walk the camel together at the zoo last year) who now works at the Imaginarium. She was kind enough to give us a behind-the-scenes tour where we got to meet all her critters that she’s in charge of. She has lizards, snakes, frogs, turtles, cockroaches, and spiders, as well as jelly fish, sea stars, sea squirts, sea urchins, and all sorts of things for the touch tanks. I thought it was really cool back there, but I don’t think Rob and the kids were as excited as I was. Some people just don’t have their priorities in order, you know?

Anyway, it was a great day topped off with dinner at the Burrito King.