Friday dawned, take a guess….sunny and beautiful!  Dave stayed home from work to spend the day with us and to be home when Carson returned from the Alps.   The kids really wanted to have an easier day close to home, so we all decided to visit the Zurich Zoo, which is within walking distance of the Walls house.  Cari stayed home so she could get ready for Carson to come home, so the Stumbos, Dave & Cullen walked to zoo!

First stop at the zoo?   Ice cream!  The zoo just opened a new, huge elephant enclosure with a special feature:  A deep pool with below-surface viewing areas where you can see the elephants swimming.  Swimming!   I mean, who’s ever seen an elephant swim in real life?   How cool!   We saw the biggest Asian elephant I’ve ever seen, an old male with huge tusks that almost dragged the ground.  He was exquisite.  We all ran to the underwater viewing area when we saw him head the direction of the pool.  We waited.  And waited.  And tried to coax him with our Texas drawl.  Our excitement at the possibility of Michael Phelpsiphant (any groans here should be pointed in LOUANN’s direction) waned when we quickly realized that to see an elephant swim, you have to have an elephant who actually WANTS to swim.   Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Amazing, huge elephants.  Nooooo swimmers.

It is a wonderful zoo with plenty of interesting animals to see.  Highlights include: the terribly distressed camels braying at the construction equipment destroying a neighboring enclosure, the peacock on the loose, the monkeys LA thought were giant hawks, a huge electric eel that freaked Jack out when he suddenly saw it inches from his peering face….

Another ice cream for the road, and we walked back home to find Carson!!  We were all sure he’d have a full beard from his time in the mountains, but he looked great!  Ellis got to go with Cari to pick him up from school; he was so excited to see him!

The kids were excited to all be together and immediately scurried off to play.

For his welcome home dinner, Cari had planned a good ol’ fashioned Texas cook-out with burgers, brats, baked beans (which are hard to come by in Switzerland) and watermelon.  She had also decorated the backyard for the Swiss vs. France World Cup game.   The dogs had on Swiss bandanas and Swiss flags, napkins, and banners decorated the patio.  After dinner we curled up and watched the World Cup.  Pooooor Switzerland.  They hadn’t beaten a French national team in 22 years, and the streak continued.

Walking back down through the wheat field to the Zurich Zoo.

First of four obligatory penguin shots.

Penguin shot #2!

#3!

#4 was an action shot – penguin feeding!

Stork.  There were high poles all over the zoo with these stork nests on top of them.

Granted, it was from a distance, but this was the monkey that LouAnn mistook for a HAWK.

Amazing elder statesman Asian elephant.

ZERO elephant interest in swimming.

She’s ready for the Switzerland World Cup game that night!

The Zurich Zoo has the most amazing playground.  Europeans, in general, have the right idea about their children playing.  Not as ultra-safety focused as we are, lots of climbing, lots of letting the kids take more risks.

Ellis likes to get to the highest point of anything he’s playing on.

Tarzan Georgia

The zoo had REALLY cool slides

Hmmmm….what next….what next…..  Georgia’s thinking SNAKES, Cullen’s thinking ICE CREAM.

G found a snake!

Fondue for dinner!  Well, AFTER dinner.

One of the wonderful slides.  The little girl at :19 had her SLIDIN’ pants on – she went down so fast she nearly catapulted herself over the curves.  Of course, if this slide were at the Fort Worth Zoo, the surface temperature would be 350 degrees.

 

 

Carson’s back from the Alps!