One Fabulous Weekend

I had such a good weekend! I’m quite worn out from it (I’m so old) - but it’s a happy kind of worn out.

On Saturday, I got to visit the Farmer’s Market just down the road from my house. It’s still early in the season, so there really wasn’t much to choose from. I did pick up a bunch of parsnips for this week’s soup pot, though; that should be interesting. I’ve never tried parsnips before: have you?

I headed off to the zoo once I took my parsnips home. The Discovery Tour starts at 12:15, but I wanted to get there early so I could browse the gift shop. I like to talk about some of the things available there in my tour, to encourage people to buy them.

My tour was really fun; I had one couple from Michigan and a single lady from Kansas. All three of them were in no hurry to go anywhere, so I didn’t have to worry about being on time. In fact, the girl from Kansas will be joining my family on our hikes this summer! It’s always good to find another fellow hiker.

Last year’s orphan brown bear cub was extremely active that day. I’ve never seen him play like that! He was in his pool, splashing around with his toy 50-gallon drum – then he’d jump out and race around the enclosure, attacking his ball or pouncing on the log – then he’d run back to his pool and do a belly flop into it. He was definitely enjoying the good weather we were having!

The tigers were fairly active, too. Normally you just get to see them napping up on their hilltop in a pool of sunshine, but this time they were up and walking around – even occasionally tussling with each other. They are such gorgeous animals; I’m always impressed with them.

Once I finally finished up with the tour, I drove out to my brother’s house in Palmer. I have a goal this year of climbing Lazy Mountain, and my sister-in-law is helping me get ready for it. We are starting small and working our way up: first was the Butte, next will be Flat Top, and finally I’ll tackle Lazy.

By the way, the name “Lazy Mountain” is a misnomer if ever there was one. Lazy Mountain is anything BUT lazy. It’s no Pioneer Peak, but still – it’s a major climb, especially if you’re not exactly in the best of shape (like yours truly).

So, anyway – my sister-in-law and I headed up the Butte that afternoon. It was beautiful out, with clear blue skies and all the lush green trees. It was also quite buggy: mosquitoes swarmed us the entire way. Despite the bugs, we managed to have fun – and made it all the way up to the top for a stunning view of the surrounding mountains & glaciers.

Sunday found me back at the zoo, this time for a special tour. My friend Kay is up from New York for a visit = she and I went to Africa together in November of 2009! It was so cool to see her again. We ended up spending over 4.5 hours at the zoo! She is a botanist (by hobby) so I was picking her brains on all the local plants while at the same time giving her all the information I had on the animals.

After taking a brief nap at home with my girls, we met back up again at the Snow Goose for dinner. We managed to spend another 2.5 hours talking, eating dinner, and just generally having a great time.

I had just enough time to give Djuna her IV treatment (all by myself this time!) before hopping in the shower and heading off to bed, exhausted but happy.