State #2 and week #2 on our grand adventure led us to Ohio and more visiting with old friends. We stayed outside of Columbus with Deb and her family, friends from our Kirkwood days. Deb likes to take credit for Staffan and I getting together, and she certainly played a role (though I like to think we would’ve figured it out ourselves eventually!). Besides, I think she enjoyed the whole process almost as much as we did.
But I digress. We spent two nights “camped” in Deb’s backyard, and enjoyed cook outs and long evenings sitting outside. Occasionally there were even guitars involved (or rather, a guitar and a ukulele) and it was an all around nice time. Peter had a couple of rough nights and a bit of a fever while we were there, but he seems to be feeling better now and I suspect he might even get a new tooth out of the whole ordeal.
On Monday, Deb’s daughter Kate and her son Jason took us to the Columbus Zoo – which is probably the best zoo I’ve never heard of before. Apparently it’s run by Jack Hanna (or affiliated with him in some way, don’t quote me that he runs it) but it was really great! If you’re ever in the Columbus area, I’d recommend it!
It seems that petting the goat just wasn’t enough. They should rename it “hugging zoo”
Peter also had a little trouble with the “petting” concept. Peter was at the “pulling zoo”. Very patient goats.
Emelie and this gorilla seemed to have a very deep conversation. It went on a while. The gorilla never moved.
Emelie and Jason had so much fun “dancing with the penguins”. This is one of the few pictures that’s not just a blur of two 3 year olds in motion.
The first rain we’ve run into on our trip was just a little drizzle while we were in the zoo. We waited it out on a little train ride with a roof. It was a big hit!
Emelie on the train. I know I’m pretty partial, but that’s a beautiful girl.
Look! What big turtles they have!
I think one of my favorite parts of the zoo was watching my fearless girl petting this snake. They had to keep reminding her to only use 1 or 2 fingers. It wasn’t crowded and since there was no line, they let her stay as long as she wanted – which ended up being pretty long! She loved the whole reptile house and especially the snakes!
We loved our visit with the Bergmann family and our trip to the Columbus Zoo! Our stay in Ohio was short, and Tuesday we moved north and west into Michigan and the Great Lakes region.