Palo Alto Tender Tracks Thurs. November 8, 2012

A walk to Palo Alto Jr. Museum Zoo
Waning Moon
Day 20

The night before I took the bus to get new tires and an alignment and then there was something found that would be best fixed so, I left it at the “Car Dr.” and changed plans for this day without our beloved Ganesh.
We had another Fall story and then another one to bring us into finding all the colors that are  now showering us all around.
I made a map on the ground as to where we were going and which way we were to go to get to our destination.   We then took off.
But oh yes, today Audrey was back and that was lovely to greet her!!!!   Gisselle and Aoife were holding her hand a lot of the day as we walked.   And as we walked it began to sprinkle so on went what rain clothes we had as most families, including myself and Audrey, were not expecting it to rain.  My Mother always taught me to be prepared.  She was very wise in this area of life!
While going down the road when we came to a cross street there was a police man. Evan was very curious about what he was doing so, I asked.  There was a Memorial Service for a Former Mayor and a lot of people were going to the church across the street. He was directing traffiic.   We said hello to many of the people and particularly Emme who is the best and most bright and bubbly greeter there is!   As we walked  Emme and Aoife loved picking the flowers along the way and we learned which flowers can be picked and where and about peoples properties and if there aren’t that many flowers we must leave them to grow strong and have time to make more of themselves.  Then down the road we continued and stopping at all the cross walks to make sure that we were safe with the crossing.   We saw a Mom from last years Tender Tracks and waved hello as she waved to us and this was the beginning of me seeing many people that I knew today!  Sometimes the children bump into people they know too and that happened to Emme when we were walking back. It was one of her teachers from First Congo.
When we got to the Museum we ate outside on the logs and the children played and ate.  Then, we became magickal caterpillars in order to make our way through the Museum and emerge as BUTTERFLIES!!!!!  Then all around we went.
The animals were all alive and awake like never before and we got to see so many of them!!!  The raccoons were playful and romping with each other for a long time.  The Ferrets went from playful to sleeping, playful to sleeping. The Rats, big and small were nibbling at each other, running their tread mill or scampering about.  The Hedgehog however was never to be seen.  But, we got to see TWO Bobcats up very, very close and this was exquisite!!!  There were birds there with feathers whose colors were so bright and brilliant it was a true glory to be in their presence.  Fish were swimming and the huge tortoise was walking about!  The bats were very wiggly too.  The children ran from this place to that and back again. Kaden was very excited to share the secret hide out that is in the back of the zoo.
As we explored there and took in the absolute wonders of all the animals that we actually got to see moving all about, the sky was bringing forth some rain and coolness. Not too bad for a while but I could tell they were getting cold because they wanted to go in.  They usually want to go in but this time seemed more about a  need/desire to be a bit warmer. Well, accept Evan who likes to feel the coldness on him and actually, as I regularly checked him, his skin was warm, his lips were pink NOT blue and he had no goose bumps!   The last fifteen minutes I said we could go in there. There was an incredible Black widow spider, lot’s of fabulous bugs and what they really liked, was the large climbing spider web.  Emme found a little closet type of thing to hide in and she just loved it, along with Alice and Paul.
We finally made our way out and back to the park when the sky really let loose with some rain the last five minutes before we got back.  We saw so many grown ups from the Memorial on the streets trying to get to their cars and keep themselves drier and we just walked on until we got back.