Milwaukee County Zoo

The Milwaukee County Zoo is renowned as one of the finest zoos in the country.  I can remember going to the zoo a few times when I was a kid with school and what not, remember Samson (even when he moved around!), went to a couple of company picnics, all good times.  Things changed for me though when my kids came along.

I think the kids were three or four years old when my mother got us a family zoo pass for Christmas.  It was great.  We would go to all the special events like "Boo at the Zoo" for Halloween, Zoo ala Cart, pancake breakfast, everything. But my favorite days were when the kids and I (and sometimes Granny) would swing by the zoo after I got finished with work.  We would get there and the ticket booth person would say "We close in an hour" and I would think great.  Most people would be gone by then.  And you know what?  We would have parts of the zoo all to ourselves.  We would pick one area to see and just visit that.  One time the bears, next time the cats.  If the weather turned bad, we'd go to one of the buildings.  And the things that we'd see.  We learned when feeding time was---very interesting.  The animals would seem to be more active.  We'd get a chance to talk to some of the zookeepers, at a relaxed pace.  I really enjoyed all of our visits to the zoo.

Alas, the kids got older and their interests changed.  Youth sports, school, and just growing up led them to other things to do.  The visits to the zoo became less frequent and more of a chore.  We stopped renewing the family membership, and didn't go to the zoo for years.  A lot of years.  I drive by the zoo nearly every day, and when I think of it I always have such great memories.  Which made last night so special for me.  I got the kids and Granny to go to the Zoo ala Carte.  We walked around and saw most of the zoo.  There are quite a few things that have changed since our last visit--new buildings, zip lines, fun facts written all over the place.  But my favorite part was the memories.  My mom said that there was a time when the kids could have given tours of this place, and says right.  But seeing them go off to look at different exhibits and animals just brought all the old thoughts of the great times I had at the zoo with them.  And I realized that this was more than likely the last time this was ever going to happen, which really saddens me.  I realized just how special the times with the kids were, and how lucky I was (am).  Hope the kids have great memories of the zoo (and other things as well!), and can't wait for them to make somemore memories of their own...