Lunch

We were in Birmingham this weekend with my sister, Sarah, and her husband, David, while Gustav was deciding which side of Louisiana to visit. After we arrived we decided to go to the Birmingham Zoo as neither of my kids have been to a zoo before and the weather was still nice. The boys have seen their share of Mississippi's cows, chickens, etc., but no lions, tigers or giraffes. So, off we went. Andrew and James both seemed very entertained, whether in or out of their double stroller, and, oddly enough, the animals seemed highly entertained by them. Every time I have been to a zoo it has been a challenge to get the penned monkey or bird or whatever I was looking at to do anything interesting, not to mention look at me. This was not the case with us. Everywhere we went it was like the animals were watching us. If they were resting, they got up. If they were distracted they turned and stared. After about the third or fourth reptile exhibit where the snakes followed the boys little blond heads like James and Andrew were snake-charmers my sister made a discovery. Our neighbors had given the boys matching shirts with cars that light up. Not just any light, but a flashing, red, moving light. They were both wearing their shirts with motion activated strobe lights! Apparently this is very interesting to all sorts of members of the animal kingdom. Especially predators like tigers and lions. Did you know giraffes stare? Anyway, we were highly entertained and very thankful for glass, Plexiglas, and electric fences. And we decided to skip the bull exhibit.