September & August Oakland Zoo Visits

Sunday September 22nd the bowling alley was swamped with a tournament.  Foregoing our weekly outing at the bowling alley with Alex we went instead to the Oakland Zoo. We had bought a membership, philanthropically motivated to support the zoo. In retrospect that membership was a great idea. We drove up, parked and entered for free — a perk of our membership — and spent about three pleasant hours there riding the aerial tram, eating lunch, and strolling the lower level. Once we had an unlimited number of entries available, we were willing to spend a few hours there without the compulsion to invest a whole day. Alex loves the aerial tram ride. The visit was worth it just to see the little grin on his face while we were up swinging through the sky. These next two photos show Alex on the way up and on the way down.

Our previous zoo visit on Sunday August 25th we had walked the upper level only, so this time we did the lower level with the giraffes, and primates. The weather was beautiful. We enjoyed a brief but pleasant afternoon outing. 

When I went to enter the link for our Oakland Zoo visit in August I found I had never written it. For completeness here is a smattering of the activities we did then and the animals we saw that day. First, more tram ride photos:

 

Animals we saw — wolves, mountain lions, owls:

Then, some photos taken while awaiting the train ride and more photos once onboard

These animals were not very wild and so barely fenced in, but I found them very interesting anyway.

On the ride home Alex was very content with his purchases and hung onto them all the way home.

Ponder: Slow Dance

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell ©2024 was like its title.... slow moving. Plot is secondary to character development in this romance and yet I kept turning the pages to see how the confusing relationship between Shiloh and Cary grew. Slow Dance was the August 2024 pick of Reese's Book Club. I do not know what the desirable criteria are for a "good summer read" but Reese's picks for 2024 — June (The Unwedding @ 3 stars),  July (The Cliffs @ 0 stars), and August (Slow Dance @ 2 stars)  — were not stellar in my opinion. Is there some assumption that during the summer months we all have beach brain? Typically I like the choices of Reese's Book Club, so this summer appears to be an anomaly. (I gave her January pick, First Lie Wins, pick 5 stars.)

Shilo and Cary along with their friend Mikey are a trio of close friends all throughout high school. They go their separate ways after graduation only to meet up again at reunions and weddings. It seems inevitable that Shiloh and Carry will wind up with each other, an outcome obvious to all but the two of them. How they "dance" around each other is initially amusing to me and then becomes increasingly frustrating. I want to say "Get on with it already!" I was focused on finishing the novel to learn if they ever did figure out their relationship or if a sad final parting was in the cards. Rainbow Rowell threw in a smattering of white trash upbringing, hoarding, marital infidelity, aging parents, and body image insecurities as a method to give the novel an interesting backdrop. (As an aside, I think the most amusing part of this book was that when my husband passed the spot where I had set it down, he kept trying to pluck the curling flower petal off the cover image.)

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it