Visitation to the Penguins
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Puck was going to have his first trip to the Zoo that day with his grandma, nana, Uncle Francis, and Aunt Linnea. (Rose was at work.) Collette wanted Puck to see the penguins. Sometimes Puck looked like a penguin himself.
The day was warm, but nicely so. Denae arrived at the the house in the middle of the morning and joined them for the outing. On the way, Mom and Denae caught up on the happenings. Mom also related the tale of how when she and Dad were first married up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dad had purchased a motorcycle. Once, when the grandmas and great-grandmas had come to visit, both grandmas and both great-grandmas had taken a ride with Dad on the bike. None of them were going to be outdone by the others, so they each took their turn.
Anteaters, cheetahs, elephants, grizzlies, penguins, puffins, polar bears, and flamingos were on the list that day. Puck sat smugly in his stroller, watching the action, as Francis and Linnea took turns wheeling him down the paths.
In the Penguin house, Collette picked him up and let him watch the puffy birds preening their tubby selves on the rocks. Puck stared intently, his lip quivering a bit from the cold. Linnea hurried through much faster. She had just taken a dunk under a waterfall before entering the refrigerated building.
Before leaving, Francis and Linnea took a ride around the Zoo on the train after having been given two passes from a woman leaving the park earlier that morning. While they chugged around the park, the moms, Collette, and Puck sat on a bench and watched a great white and black butterfly circle the flowering bush behind them.
They followed their trip with a lunch of egg salad sandwiches, strawberries, Clementines, baby tomatoes, and blue potato chips under a pavilion down the road.
And after wondering about Carrie-Bri’s whereabouts for the past three days, Collette placed a call to the YMCA in Christchurch, New Zealand, requesting that they leave a message for Carrie to call home upon her arrival. The call was unnecessary, however, for about the same time Collette was speaking to the New Zealander at the front desk (about noon Christchurch time on Friday the 13th), Carrie was sending Dad an email:
“Hey, Dad, sorry I haven’t written, I didn’t have Internet for the past few days. I’ve been having a blast, although they aren’t particularly friendly to Americans here. I went bungee jumping again today and I am HOOKED!!! It was super sweet but FREEZING COLD!!!…”
Meanwhile, that afternoon while Collette and Puck were still at the house, Joe called again from the paradise in the sea. They had been snorkeling and boogie boarding; (Joe had broken his nine dollar board and was getting it replaced). They had sampled sushi in oyster shells – Collette had seen the pictures. It would seem that they had also enjoyed some time getting to know the sea turtles. And they had taken some good shots of the mountains – razor-ridged and oh-so-green.
While Joe chatted with them over the speaker phone, Rose tried to get Puck to make noises for Joe. Then she tried to get the cat to squawk to him.