A very fun weekend: part 2

This was the weekend we were planning to go snow tubing at Boler Mountain... except that, this winter being what it is, there was no snow. On Wednesday I got an email back from the staff there saying they "planned" to be open on the weekend, but by Friday night the website was broadcasting that the hill was closed.
Since this was one weekend day this winter when Liam didn't have hockey - and those are few and far between - we didn't want to let it pass without taking advantage. So with another six weeks or so to go before our Detroit Zoo membership expires, we decided to make another trip.
We knew the temperature would be hovering right around freezing, but we were not anticipating snow... after all, wasn't that the very problem with going tubing? Check out the kids' footwear, which grows increasingly inappropriate as the day goes by. (Here come the first few flakes!)

We had the place virtually to ourselves. It was amazing. Thinking back to our trip last March when it was wall-to-wall people (throngs of school groups to boot)... it was an entirely different experience. Not every exhibit was open, but the ones that were open made up for the lack of numbers. We had never been inside the giraffe barn, for example. We'd only ever seen the giraffes from a great distance in their outdoor enclosure. Here, we came face to face with them. Or face to knees, as the case may be.
The Arctic Ring of Life (my favourite exhibit - or at least it was, until we got into that giraffe barn!) seemed much more realistic with the snow coming down.
Watch out, Liam, you're going to get eaten!
(Mallory finally tires out and cops a ride...)
The polar bears were much more active than they are when we go to see them in 90-plus degree summer heat - go figure, right? They were playing a game with each other - throwing their food dish into the water, jumping in after it, and trying to wrestle it away from each other. It was pretty cool to watch.

The only disappointment of the trip for me was that the lions were not out. In a real life turn of events that I couldn't have made up if I'd tried, two of the Detroit Zoo's five lions were actually rescued from a residential neighbourhood where they were kept to guard a crack house. The Detroit Zoo is so stately and beautiful that it's hard to believe it's in the same city.
After almost 4 hours, it was time to go... but not without first having a snowball fight. At the front gate. Which was utterly deserted.
We'd already achieved our goal of getting outside for some exercise and fresh air. This was just the icing on the cake.
And it led to a great family picture (camera propped up on a garbage can). Maybe my project will expand to become Four People Twenty-Four Times, because this one is a keeper. In the full-size shot below you can actually tell that three of the four of us have hucked a snowball at the camera (not too precisely, of course). Only one person has chosen to hold on to hers. In about thirty seconds she is going to try to stuff it down her daddy's back.
Goodbye for now, Detroit Zoo. I have a sneaking suspicion we will be renewing our membership for another year.