Brown Bear...

...at the zoo. My daughter brought Mae over about 8 this morning to spend the day with me. I asked if she'd had breakfast & Mae said no & asked if we could eat at our "usual restaurant", so that's what we did. After that I drove to the zoo as a surprise for her, and I have to say I wasn't overly impressed. The last time I was at the zoo was when my daughter was in a stroller....she'll be 31 tomorrow, so it's been awhile. It was disappointing because the flamingos were nowhere to be seen, the bird house was closed, the mammal house was closed, and very few animals were actually outside. A couple of the outdoor areas for animals were overgrown and unused. But we walked through the special exhibit of dragons (lots of robotic dragons;  Mae wanted to know where they live when they're not at the zoo & does the zoo let them fly home), we rode the train and then the carousel. Mae wanted me to "ride" the horse next to hers.....picture me trying to get on a really high horse while holding two bottles of water and trying to keep my camera from banging something & my phone from falling out of my back pocket! No sooner had I gotten settled on my steed when one of the bottles of water fell out of my hand. I'd have left it lay there & then picked it up after the ride was over, but the guy running the ride motioned for me to pick it up, so I had to get back off the horse, and as I bend down to pick it up the ride starts. Mae's yelling "Grandma! Get on your horse--it's starting"! Yeah, right, like I could get on it while it's going up and down & my hands are full!! So I just sat on one of the benches & Mae's yelling: "No, Grandma, not the bench! Get on the horse"! No way, as I could just picture myself sprawled on the floor of the carousel being trampled by the hooves! Lol. We had ice cream after that, headed home for a late lunch, then walked to the park so Mae could show me how she can swing herself now & I don't have to push her. Her mom came to pick her up after work but she wanted to stay overnight, so she got the okay from her mom & is sound asleep in bed right now......I'll be following shortly. A fun day.  :)