Yesterday we celebrated Luke’s second
birthday by taking a train ride at Hermann Park in Houston. The train ride was a first for me. Not for riding a train. That I have done before. My Grandfather used to work for the railroad,
so many years ago we used to ride the train for free with my Grandmother just
for fun. Yep. I’m that old.
I thought it would take us through the zoo, but no such luck. It was still a fun ride, though. Luke especially seemed to have a great
time.
Before the ride we had a little party
outside the gate. Christi spread out a
tablecloth on the ground and everyone gathered around to sing and have a
train-shaped cookie. Quite the creative
Mommy, wouldn’t you say? Then Luke
opened his presents. My favorite was
when he saw the Incredible Hulk doll. He
gently took it in his hands, rose from his sitting position, walked over to the
very edge of the tablecloth, leaned over as far as he could … and ceremoniously
dumped the doll in the dirt. Ouch.
After the ride we all headed into the zoo,
where we were educated about the inner workings of the meercat lifestyle. Easy enough to remember. The ones with the shorter tails have been
involved in fights for supremacy and have had their tails chewed on. Ouch.
Oh, and the current female mob leader (that’s what they call a group of
meercats) was named … Christi. One of the kids made the observation, upon
seeing a meercat in standing sentry position, “Look, that meercat is
Yoda.” Knowing they were in good hands
with old Yoda watching out for them, we continued on.
The most exciting portion of the trip came
as we were making our way toward the exit.
Two of the rhinos were knocking heads.
And their little escapade soon escalated into a full on brawl, bumping
heads and trying to get the lowest position with a horn. They even outright chased each other around
the pen. One of the zookeepers who was
passing by told us that the two “sparring” were both teenagers. I told him, “Say no more. That explains
everything.”
We stopped at the giraffe pen to have a
cheeseburger. Six or eight giraffes were
roaming around, and the newest little baby one was out as well, doing his best
to avoid the ostriches and the rampant zebra.
But off in one corner the two biggest of the creatures were standing
regally side by side. One had an unusual
color, almost black, while the other looked much younger. Both huge, beautiful, gentle creatures,
right? Well, up until one of them wound
up his neck like a baseball pitcher and swung his horns around right into the
outstretched neck of the other one. You couldn’t
miss the smack of contact, either, so it definitely wasn’t a gentle love
tap. The other one waited patiently for
a long time, until the first one wasn’t looking, and then he returned the
favor, er, well, the smack. The two of
them continued their intermittent punching match until the keepers called them
into the barn for the night. One of the workers
told us they acted like that – especially active - every time it was about to
rain. Yet another interesting fun fact about zoo life. Take that Hurricane Patricia. No sneaking up on these animals.
It soon became apparent that it was time to
head home. Several clues. It was getting dark. They started announcing a countdown as to how
many minutes remained until lockdown. I thought we might have to leave April behind,
though. Her new phone is now full of rhino
battle videos and photos of animals, and, oh, maybe a few of children for good
measure. Seems that woman kind of enjoys
the zoo.
Hebrews 12:10 says, “Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but
God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.”
Father, thank you for all your
creatures. Especially those tiny human
ones we call grandchildren. Amen.
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