A child again...

What is it about certain places or activities which cause us to revert to those simpler ways of our youth?  Zoos are some of the places we visit which make us all feel like kids again.  When I was little and my parents first took me to the Houston Zoo, they expected me to focus in on the lions and tigers and bears (Oh my!).  If not the large carnivores, then they were sure I would be taken by the monkeys and their antics.  Instead, I apparently spent the entire day chasing pigeons, much to their amusement.

Fast forward fifty years and it is still the simpler side of zoos which bring out the kid in us all.  While visiting our grandkids and their parents who recently moved to a suburb of Omaha, we visited the Henry Doorly Zoo.  This is a really neat place, having some tremendous new venues for viewing animals in natural settings.  There is a Desert Dome, which actually contains biospheres from several different parts of the world, an IMAX theater, and new large cat and ape buildings. 

While strolling the grounds after seeing most of the exhibits, we happened up on a covered bridge leading back toward the exit.  The grandkids kept scampering back and forth across the picturesque structure, while the grandparents stopped in the middle to rest up a little.  The Lovely Bride discovered there were fish food dispensers, and sure enough, swarms of brightly colored koi in the waters below.  The adults spent 20 minutes watching over-fed carp climbing over each other in an attempt to grab the morsels falling from above.

Who says you can't recapture your youth?