Snooze at the Zoo

The Milwaukee Zoo has a unique event that my 7 year old daughter currently loves to attend. It's called Snooze at the Zoo. "Snooze" involves reserving a camping space at the Zoo, setting up a tent with your children, and staying the night on the grounds while animals snore and roar around you. It sells out quickly, and of course, is a wonderful bonding experience with your children. This season, both my wife and youngest daughter opted out, and the honor to take my oldest camping was mine.

August weather in WI is usually hot and humid, and rain and thunderstorms seem to pop up regularly. Weather.com was not predicting a nice camping evening and "Raincheck" was not in the fine print of the Snooze at the Zoo waiver. As my hairline has receded, rain isn't my favorite outdoor weather condition, and potential lightening and thunder usually is enough to get me inside.

We attended Snooze with the intent of returning home to sleep. We first enjoyed the camping picnic dinner they provided, and then walked the entire zoo together in the rain. It was empty other than the reduced number of campers, many I'm sure finding the rain a Debbie Downer. We chose however to find every puddle we could splash. I have never had an umbrella sword fight I've lost, until yesterday evening. I was shown butterfly gardens, braved a hand in hand walk through the "Wolf Woods" at dusk, and learned that rain can feed happiness to a soul, tiny and large, if you let it.

As the evening progressed, faces were painted, I received a bad bart moustache and my daughter chose a cloud with a rainbow, fitting for our wonderful evening together. We played ping pong ball in the fishbowl, cornhole, and learned from a wonderful 67 year old volunteer about pelts, horns, and turtle shells. I listened to the same volunteer answer the question on how she got the pelts and horns, explain to a 3 year old boy and my daughter that, "sometimes animals live life so happy and free, that when they have shared enough time on earth with us, they give us their shells and pelts so they can continue to share their happiness with us" Go figure I'd always thought explaining death to a child sucked, how wrong I was.

The most interesting part of the night wasn't the Zoo, we have spent time there before. It was seeing my daughter's reaction to the weather.

Gene Kelly sang "Singing in the Rain" well before my oldest daughter roamed the earth. A light and airy song, that jingles it's way into your brain and holds on for dear life. The last line before the final refrain in case you don't have Gene Kelly on your iTunes favorites playlist:

Why do I get up

Each morning and start?

Happy and head up

With joy in my heart

Why is each new task

A trifle to do?

Because I am living

A life full of you.

Watching my 7 year old daughter bounding from puddle to puddle with an umbrella twisting in her hands, or trying to drink the rain as it falls from the sky reminded me of the lyric above. I watched a miniature version of the joy that likely once bounced in my heart when the water started to fall. It was a happy reminder that the wonder of youth should not be wasted by adulthood.

Instead of camping at the zoo and waiting for the thunder and lightening to wake us at 2am, we chose to make a pillow fort in the basement and camp out at home. I was asked how I was going to make a fort big enough for both of us, to which I replied, "I have power tools". While I can still make a mean fort, I was reminded this morning that I have not yet learned how to make one so awesome that my back isn't sore the next morning after sleeping in it.

So many lessons in the rain at the zoo, and we didn't even have to wait for the crying peacocks acting like roosters at 5am to make me want to learn if peacock tastes like chicken.

Enjoy!

bvd