2011 Boston Kidney Walk

Last Sunday Maura, Jennifer and I walked in the 2011 Boston Kidney Walk at the Franklin Park Zoo. We, or more accurately Team Captain Jennifer, raised $400 for the National Kidney Foundation and we had a very enjoyable visit to the zoo. Thank you to everyone who sponsored us in the walk.

Sunday was a gray, misty day and threatened rain but it held off actually raining until we had finished the three mile walk around the zoo and were returning to our car. On the way we had a nice easy stroll and a fun visit to the zoo. Maura at age eight still gets excited by watching animals and her young-at-heart parents do too. It was a chilly day but warm enough for the animals to be outside, except for the giraffes and the gorillas. The highlights of this visit were the peacocks, the budgies at the Aussie Aviary and the ring tailed lemurs in the Rainforest Pavilion. The peacocks were running loose throughout the zoo and were displaying their gorgeous iridescent tails, though there didn’t seem to be any peahens around to impress. At the Aussie Aviary we purchased a seed stick to feed the budgies and they flew down and perched on Maura’s hands while she fed them. The troop of lemurs has two new additions born at the end of March. The baby lemurs were really cute scrambling on their mother’s back and holding on as she jumped through the branches in their habitat.

More important than having a good time, we did our part to help the National Kidney Foundation help people suffering from kidney disease.  According to the National Kidney Foundation one in nine American adults suffers from chronic kidney disease, though many don’t know it. Many of the sufferers will eventually face kidney failure and a kidney transplant or life on dialysis. Among those with kidney disease are my mother, who has had a kidney transplant, and me, who may someday need one. We walked in honor of my mother, and of my father, who donated her transplanted kidney. I ask that you consider supporting the National Kidney Foundation, perhaps by sponsoring a walker or joining a team in your local Kidney Walk. Chances are you know someone, a family member or a friend perhaps, who also suffers from kidney disease and will thank you personally for your efforts. You have my thanks already.

Election Day Zoo

Last Tuesday was Election Day and it was a zoo—the Franklin Park Zoo, to be precise. After I had completed some necessary morning chores and cast my ballot I took Maura to the zoo. She has Election Day off every year because Weymouth uses the public schools as polling places and closes them for the day for the safety of students and the convenience of voters. The school closure does nothing for the convenience of parents but because I work evenings it was an opportunity for me to spend some quality time with my daughter.


We got to the zoo around 11:30 and spent three hours there. We had the place almost to ourselves, which surprised me. Weymouth is not the only town that closes its schools on Election Day but almost no one thought to visit the zoo besides us. Perhaps it was the weather. It was one of the chilliest days we’ve had so far this year. It wasn’t too bad to enjoy the zoo, however. It was dry, sunny most of the day, and not very windy. It was plenty comfortable outside if you were bundled up. Many of the zoo’s best exhibits are indoors anyway.

The best exhibit at the Franklin Park Zoo is probably the tropical forest exhibit which is indoors out of the weather. The zoo’s troop of gorillas lives there. Maura’s favorites ringed tailed lemurs live there too, as do free flying birds and many other fascinating animals. We spent over an hour exploring the exhibit. One thing that left me curious was the mice running around the bottom of the fruit bat enclosure. They didn’t trouble the fruit bats but I was left wondering whether the zoo has a mouse problem or if it was simply convenient to keep snake food in with the fruit bats. No signs mentioned the mice so I doubt they were intended to be on display.

The rest of our trip to the zoo was also enjoyable. We heard the lion roar, which we never have before, and we saw the prairie dogs popping in and out of their holes, which is always fun. At Franklin Farm a friendly zoo staffer introduced Maura to the animals and she got to pet the horse and feed the goats.

Our visit to the zoo was educational as well as entertaining. Zoo New England, which runs the Franklin Park Zoo, takes its educational responsibilities very seriously and signage gives a wealth of information about the animals and their habitats as well as about conservation. Maura is curious and smart so she didn’t need any prompting from me to read the signs. Watching her paying attention and learning was a big part of what made the afternoon enjoyable for me. I hope she never loses that curiosity and can still enjoy a visit to the zoo when she’s grown up, even if she doesn’t bring her own kids along. I think the chances of that are probably pretty good.

We Went to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Last Thursday was Maura’s class field trip to the Franklin Park Zoo. At her school they get one big field trip each year so their trip to the zoo was one of the highlights of their school year. I went along as a volunteer chaperon. It was a long day but I’m glad I could help.

I arrived at school in the morning with Maura. We walked from home despite the promise of rain because I didn’t want to worry about parking at school. As a special treat we stopped for breakfast at the donut shop about halfway between home and school. One I had signed in at the office and the kids had settled into their classroom I went down to meet them. I was one of two parent volunteers for the class. I was assigned four students to watch during the day, Maura and three boys from her class. Then we boarded the bus and headed to the zoo.

It was a long and trying day for me but it was fun too. Once at the zoo the class split up and I was alone for the day with my four charges. I had not expected the class to be split up that way. It was all up to me and the kids what we did with the day. We managed to see pretty much everything the Franklin Park Zoo has to offer, except the giraffes. They were in their house staying out of the cold. It was not a warm day and it threatened to rain all day though it never did. I’m certainly glad for that. Many of the best exhibits at Franklin Park are indoors but there were lots of kids at the zoo and they all would have been crowded inside if it had been raining.
My four kids were all very good and excited about their trip to the zoo. Everyone wanted to see everything and they were remarkably patient and didn’t give me a hard time. They biggest problem was keeping them together. Someone was always running ahead or trailing behind and I feel lucky that I did not lose any of them.

Everyone has their own favorite animals at the zoo. I’m fond of the mandrills and the tamarins in the rain forest exhibit. Maura likes the lemurs. All the kids like the emus because they heard a story about emus in class. One of the peacocks that wander free in the zoo gave us a nice suprise. It fanned out its tail and put on a display for us. It was very impressive.

I was completely exhausted by the time we got back on the bus. Maura put her head on my shoulder and took a nap. I wish I could have done the same but it was a noisy and bumpy ride back to the school.