Last Trip to the Zoo...

Three Christmases ago Grandma gave us money to buy a membership, and I chose to get a zoo membership.  The Christmas after that my brother S told me he planned to get us a National Park pass for Christmas, but when I informed him that we get that free since we're military, he was happy to do a zoo membership instead.  We have had a lot of fun at our little zoo.  Our membership expired in March, and since we're moving overseas soon, we aren't going to renew.  But on our last day we went to say goodbye.

 The obligatory statue photos.

 Luckily it was a cool damp day, so we had the zoo to ourselves.  And it was a great day.  The baby lion cub, Emery, was out with both his parents, and he was pouncing on his mom, trying to climb trees, and splashing in the water.  The crash of rhinos was trotting around, play fighting, and pushing each other all over.  The tiger brothers were being so funny.  It was cold, right?  And close to the end of the day, and you could just tell those cats were done.  They took turns going up to the door that would let them in from the weather,  and they would paw the door, get no response, and kind of huff in disgust.  Then the other one would try while the first paced around looking cold and annoyed.  The meer cats were acting crazy too.  All in all, a good zoo day.  Nothing will ever live up to the time last summer when we watched the lioness catch a raccoon and play with it while it was still alive then kill it, but still.

 Finding the chameleons before Mom is always a fun game, and they always do it.  Especially Miss R.  She has sharp little eyes.

 The zoo mermaid. 

Field Trip: Smithfield...

Friday we took an explore to Smithfield.  No particular reason, just headed there.  We had been told about Windsor Castle Park there, and that it is a great place to take a walk.  It is!  I'm jealous- Portmsouth is lacking in walking trails and paths.  Most of our streets don't even have sidewalks!  (Which is fine in a little town like the one I grew up in, but not in a busy city of 100,000...)  I read that Windsor Castle Farm was originally part of a 1637 plantation settled by Arthur Smith, an ancestor of the town's founder, Arthur Smith IV.  The plantation was called Windsor Castle Farm- I haven't been able to find out why...  In 2010 the founder and former CEO of Smithfield Foods (they make ham), wanted his town to have open space similar to Central Park, so he bought and donated the land. 

We only walked about a mile- it was freezing!  And as usual, some of my small children made poor wardrobe choices considering the death grip winter has on Virginia at the moment.  After that we walked into downtown.

We went to the Isle of Wight museum, which is really great, although small.   If you want an overview, please watch this video from the Museum Dance Off here (If you don't know about the Museum Dance Off, you should!  It's amazing fun.)  They have an old country store set up, complete with checkers.

 And a penny drop game.  The girls could have stayed here a lot longer.

 I looked at all the old labels and fabrics and quizzed the girls on old times.

 Then on to the rest of the museum.  They have the world's oldest peanut.  And....  The world's oldest ham!  Which I took a picture of, really I did, with the girls in front of it of course.  I mean, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't take my kids' photo in front of a hundred plus year old piece of meat? But I can't find it anywhere.  But here is the official Ham Cam, so you can see it yourself.  And we got ham pressed pennies to add to our collection, so it's all good.

 I had always wondered what the town of Poquosin VA was named after, now I know!

 As you may have guessed, Smithfield Virginia is quite big on pigs.  So their street statues are, of course, pigs.

 We ate lunch at an old fashioned diner.

 And walked around a lot.  And had to wait turns for climbing trees, which was very vexing...

 We went to a one room schoolhouse museum.  It was really good for the girls to see first hand what school used to be like.  This was an African American school, so of course the kids had no buses or new books or paper; in addition to all the "usual" hardships of school back then.  It is always good for our, realistically, spoiled children to see and imagine what other lives were like in my opinion, so this was a great stop.  Unfortunately the outhouse was locked, so I couldn't show that to the girls.

 Smithfield is full of amazing OLD buildings.

 We went in lots of shops.  I want to keep this garland in mind for the future.

 And when my husband finally starts welding things, I will put in an order for a chicken wind vane just like this.

 Pigs painting pigs on a painted pig.

 A treat at the bakery.

Pig cookies!  Of course.