Day 4: California

On Friday morning, I took the tots for another drive through my hometown, this time passing one of my childhood homes, my daycare center, two best girlfriends' homes, my junior high-school, and various haunts, before sitting outside my elementary school playground and watching children play. Finally we stopped at the county library, which has been largely expanded since I lived here. We went for children's story time, but Margaret and Joseph had so much fun in the imaginative play area, they preferred to stay there.

Riddle me this: How does a toddler settled safely in his car seat on a drive in which there are no accidents end up at his destination wailing with a red goose egg popping out on his head? By having a three-year-old sister in the seat adjacent and armed with a water bottle!

After lunch back at home base, I popped the children back in the car so they would nap before we met my dad and sister at the Sacramento Zoo. During their snooze, I enjoyed listening to talk radio (boy, I do enjoy it, but I won't listen to it in hearing of older-but-too-young children) and drove past a couple of my old apartments, favorite restaurants and hang-out spots, and my junior college. So many memories . . . most of which made me want to go around grabbing young ladies in their teens and 20s, shaking them by the shoulders, and telling them to listen--LISTEN!--to their parents!

The lion

Grandpa shows off an anteater

Giraffes

We paid the three dollars for Margaret to have a Giraffe Encounter.

Chimpanzee

Carousel--before Joseph started crying in fear

I tried using the backpack-leash on Joseph for the first time:
Margaret thought it was the best thing ever!

Riding the train was a highlight for Joseph.

Cousins: Joseph, Melissa, Maddie, Margaret

Margaret said this was her pet crocodile Carol
and she instructed me to feed it leaves.

Pink flamingos

The old cement snake slide:
still around after at least 40 years