We continued our leisurely walk through the maze of the zoo, passing mandrills, monkey and river otters, and ending up at the lion house where Andrew was waiting for us with the picnic lunch that Timothy had promised. Unbelievable. The two of them had planned for everything. Sandwiches of three kinds: cheese, ham, and turkey, plus sodas, water, chips, fruit, and cookies. I praised the thought that had gone into the selection and the clever way everything had been packaged so neatly with ice packs, napkins, and even a tablecloth.
When we’d eaten all we wanted, Andrew came back from the bench he’d been sitting at and packed up all our leftovers. I know he’d been eating lunch when we did, but I didn’t feel comfortable about him having to eat by himself. It seemed wrong. Timothy only laughed. “He could eat with us if he wanted, Penelope. He’s a loner, happier to be off by himself.”
When Andrew returned to pick up our much lighter basket, I asked him if he wanted to join us and see the rest of the zoo. His eyes crinkled and a smile broke out, but he shook his head. “You two do your thing. I’ll meet you with the limo when you’re ready to leave.”
He started to walk away, then turned. “I like you, Penelope. Thanks for the invite.”
I might have said more, but his long strides had him halfway down the path before I thought up something to say.
Timothy and I strolled by the rhinos, penguins, and seals, then visited the bears and wolves, saw some wild horses, then moseyed by the Komodo dragons, anteaters and the wolverine’s lair (We didn’t see the wolverine. He was hiding or else taking a siesta.) Of course, we piled into the Little Puffer Steam Train. It circled the whole park and was a lot of fun, especially since it was filled with kids going, “Look!” just like were.
We paused to use the facilities and ate ice cream cones, then continued on. A new construction held a virtual reality theater. We saw something about gorillas that was amazing.
When we entered the tropical rainforest and aviary, Timothy pulled out pictures with the names of the birds that he’d copied from the Online Zoo’s Bird Identification Chart, so we were able to figure out which bird was which as we spotted them. That was fun. The scarlet ibis wowed us both, but my favorite was actually the blue-singed teal. He wasn’t flashy like some of the parrots, and seemed a rather humble little bird, but I think he had a great personality.