Bats!

After the Gardens, we went downtown to the Old Market district for lunch. We've been in Nebraska 11 years and had never been there. We wandered around for a while and ended up at Upstream Brewing Company and had an awesome lunch. There were no take out boxes when we were done.

We finally made it to the zoo at 3:00. The crowds were starting to thin (but it was still Very crowded). It's been years since we were last here - the whole African safari part is all new. JP was excited to see the new elephant exhibit. GP wanted to see the desert dome, CP was psyched for the aquarium, and I only wanted to take a family picture in front of the giant kapok tree to send to my Amazon guide back in Ecuador.

In the jungle building, at some point some fruit bats escaped from their pen and started a free-flying community. Now there are hundreds of pigeon-sized bats all flying around freely. GP does NOT like bats. He was getting creeped out in the cave part of the desert dome where the bats are behind glass. He really started freaking out in the jungle with all the bats flying around. All the little tunnels and cave parts of the jungle are much more exciting with real bats! 

What started out as a very crappy day with the roofers next door waking up JP and invoking the wrath of her red hair ended up on a high note. We spent the entire day together as a family, we walked a fair number of miles, and the boys slept all the way back to Lincoln. It rained at 5:00, which would have ruined our game day party plans anyway. And the Huskers beat Fresno State in the season opener!