Kissing Elephants

I still have not been on my bike this week, for a number of reasons. Hopefully I can get out tomorrow for a comfortable 10-mile ride… although after a week off I don’t know how comfortable it will be.

Lexi’s last day of school was Friday. She has this week completely off, and then starts summer school on Monday. Her summer school week runs Monday – Thursday from 8 – 12 and is structured like a summer camp this year. It is two three-week sessions, and she’ll have all of August off. She’s looking forward to it.

We’ve spent this week trying to keep ourselves busy while spending as little money as possible. I’ve become pretty good at this, acknowledging that my college life and freelance business give me lots of flexibility but not necessarily the flexibility to throw money around.

On Monday, we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens on the east side of Madison and then to the M.Y. Dream Park in Monona. At the gardens, we went into the conservatory first. This hanging plant was right at the entrance – Lexi thought the flowers looked like they were waiting for a kiss, so I had her pucker up for a picture.

The conservatory has a rainforest ecosphere – lovely green and flowering plants, a waterfall and pond with koi and goldfish, birds, and even some geckos, but we didn’t see any. We spotted some eggs underneath some greenery – we don’t know if they were bird or gecko eggs. Maybe we’ll make it back next week to see if they’ve hatched.

A tactile table is tucked away in the corner of the conservatory for little hands to explore. Lexi had fun touching and smelling everything there.

After we walked around the conservatory we went out into the gardens. Red-winged blackbirds nest in the arbor and startled Lexi when they swooped too close to us. We could hear babies chirping and were able to spot their nest from the path.

Starkweather Creek cuts through part of the Gardens’ property – a footbridge over it leads to a Thai garden, complete with an authentic Thai pavilion. The pavilion was a gift to UW-Madison from the Thai government and Thai Chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association, and the university donated it to the City of Madison for inclusion at the gardens

Lexi took this picture of me “kissing” an elephant in the Thai garden. I’m going to send it to my friend Molly – she has a similar picture of me taken about 28 years ago… except in that picture the elephant I’m kissing is on a stoop in Stitzer and I’m wearing only a diaper.

Even though we spent a couple hours at the gardens that day, we didn’t see it all – despite her interest it could only hold her attention for so long. We followed up the gardens with a trip to the dream park for another hour or so. Lexi played while I read and gave myself a manicure.

Tuesday was spent at home, but on Wednesday we found ourselves in Madison at campus museums. I’ll write more about that later.