It's all happening at the zoo. Taking advantage of the suddenly cooler weather and the just as sudden lack of work, we drove up to the zoo yesterday as a sort of last hooray before the girls' train trip up to Tacoma. We had a short-ish itenerary for the afternoon, designed to get Evelyn home before the window of opportunity for a nap slammed shut. Polar bears, penguins, zoo train (to get Evelyn ready for the big train today), lunch, and home. Surprisingly, it actually turned out that way. Conrad and Yugyan were the only two polar bears out and about while we were there and they were having a rather lazy morning, so it didn't take long for Evelyn to lose interest. Evelyn and I headed over to see the penguins after that, while Mommy answered the call of nature. Appropriately, the penguins were answering that call as well when Evelyn and I showed up. Like all of them. At once. It was bizarre. OK, maybe three or four of them within a few seconds of each other, but it was still weird and it left me wondering if penguins have some sort of group-bowel instinct. "Oh look at that silly penguin, Evelyn - he pooped...whoa, take it easy guys! You gotta swim in that water!" Or something like that. Evelyn was more fixated on the lone penguin that was perched right next to the glass, itching itself constantly, anyway. We didn't linger long after Brigetta arrived. Kind of an odd place, the penguin cave.
We headed over to the zoo train station next where Evelyn handed her own ticket to the lady at the gate, said "Thankoo," and squeezed in between us in the forward car. The Washington Park Zoo train meanders through some pretty scenic stuff on it's way to the rose test gardens, itself a very scenic place. At the first crossing on the way out of the zoo, Evelyn immediately picked up on all the waving that was going on, and didn't let it go until the round trip was well and truly over. Nobody to wave at while we wind through the trees? No problem - just wave at the people behind you. Wave at them every 30 seconds, in fact, because everybody likes being waved at by a terrifically cute little girl. On the return trip, she did manage to fit in some snuggle time with Daddy - something that Daddy was unaware he had needed so badly. For just a few exceedingly precious minutes, she curled up in my lap and we watched the trees go by. It was extraordinary, if only for the fact that she stayed still long enough for those moments to happen. I found myself...lifted a little. Able to better cope with the things that have been going on (of which work is only one part). Unwittingly, I have this tendency to turn towards escapism when I am most pressed. Books, games, guitar - whatever - I just kind of clam up until I've dealt with whatever needs dealing with internally. So it was something truly cathartic to have a few minutes like that with my little girl because it wasn't an escape from reality - it was an affirmation that reality was worth being present for.
Of course, now both of my girls are gone for the rest of the week, which leaves me only one snuggling option: Scout.
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