A Day at the Zoo

Yesterday, my good friend Jill and her husband Vin met up with me on their visit to the Chicago area. We decided to go to Lincoln Park Zoo. This Zoo holds a lot of childhood memories for me and it was a great last "Chicago thing" to do before I leave next week.

My best memory of LPZ will always be when I visited the zoo with my Grandparents around the age of 7 or 8. I distinctly remember the polar bears. LPZ has a really nice polar bear exhibit, in which you can go below the pool and see the bears swimming under the water. The bears swim right up to the glass. Well, being 7 or 8 years old, I was a bit naive. My Grandpa was standing there with me, watching, and when the polar bear would start to swim towards us (on his regular path), he would whistle. This would make me think he was literally calling the polar bear to us, as you would a dog. I took great joy in that...and it's now one of my favorite memories of my Grandfather. And since then, polar bears have been my favorite animal.

So, on the visit to LPZ yesterday, I made sure to visit the polar bears. It brought back great memories of the visit with my Grandpa. I took lots of pictures and Jill was great to take a picture of me with the polar bear right behind me. I looked at the pictures this morning and they brought small tears to my eyes. This was my last Chicago activity for who knows how long. And it brought back such a great feeling of love for my Grandpa. I'm really glad that was the last thing I was able to do. It meant more than I ever thought it would.

(Please excuse how horrible I look. This was at the end of a VERY hot day...)