Yesterday we went to the zoo with my friend Stephanie. It was such a fun day!

Annalie was super excited to be going to a new zoo. I hadn’t been to this zoo in a decade so I was pretty excited myself, mainly because of the skyride. I love skyrides.

Stephanie, her parents, and her sister, brother-in-law and nephews were all here for a family vacation, and they invited us to join them at the zoo the last day they were here.

One of the nice things about living in a place where other people spend their vacations is that you get to see more out-of-town friends that way! And when people do come visit, you get to do all kinds of fun touristy things with them.

Since I fully expect we will want to visit the zoo often, I bought a dual membership for Annalie and me. (Troy never has to pay to get into the zoo; he just has to show his active-duty military ID and his admission is free.) If we visit the zoo twice in the next year, the membership will have paid for itself and then some. I think it’s safe to say we will get our money’s worth.

I had not seen Stephanie since we left Tempe, and it was really good to catch up with her in between checking out the koalas and the pandas and all the other animals. The kids had fun doing a little coloring and riding the skyride and petting the goats.

In fact, I was rather amazed at how nonchalant Annalie was about the goats. The last time we went to a petting zoo she was very hesitant about going near the animals but this time she charged right in and darted around petting any animal that was standing still. She even picked up some hay and fed it to one of the goats. Once a large goat hopped down off a wall right behind her and she jumped a foot in the air but immediately laughed and said, “Wow, that goat really scared me!” Then she chased it around with a handful of hay.

As for the skyride, I half expected her to tell me she was too scared to go on it, but she didn’t show even a hint of nervousness as we waited in line and watched the gondolas arrive at the station and leave with new passengers. When it was our turn, she climbed right in, sat down, and immediately starting exclaiming over how high we were and how much we could see. When our ride ended, Annalie skipped down the ramp and announced that her favorite part of the zoo was the skyride.

I told her I was really happy she had enjoyed it, and explained that since we bought a membership and wouldn’t have to buy tickets to the zoo or the skyride for a whole year, we could just drop by the zoo, ride the skyride, and then go home if we wanted to! She thought that was a great idea.

After I took the previous photo Annalie said, “Oh! I’d better take my sunglasses off so you can see me better,” and let me take another picture. Cracked me up.

After a fun afternoon, we decided we had better head home before traffic got too bad. We said good-bye to our friends. Annalie took a couple of photos before we made the trek to the far end of the parking lot. We headed home, tired but happy.

Photo by Annalie, age 4.

About five minutes into our 20-minute drive home, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Annalie had fallen asleep, the bag of goldfish crackers she’d asked for sitting unopened in her lap. Nothing says “good day” like a kid needing a nap on the way home.

For more photos see the set Zoo day! in my Flickr photostream.

My friend Lynn has a vintage glass coffee percolator she found at a flea market. She uses it for making tea. I’ve teased her about how she doesn’t deserve such a cool percolator when she doesn’t even drink coffee, and she always retorts that she knows I’m just jealous. She’s absolutely correct. I told her if she ever saw another one to grab it for me. Well, she did find another one, and she gave it to me as a going-away present when we left Maryland! Did I mention what an awesome friend she is?

Photo taken by my mom.

This morning, since my kitchen is more or less unpacked and organized (as long as you don’t look inside the cupboards), I decided to make my first pot of coffee with the glass percolator. I had used a percolator before, a few times while camping and once when visiting a friend (Hi Chiara!) of a friend (Hi Erin!) in Brooklyn, but it had been a while. I was about to head upstairs to check for directions on the internet when it occurred to me that I had a whole shelf full of cookbooks in the kitchen. And whaddaya know, the first one I checked had a recipe for percolator coffee.

So I measured out my beloved Trader Joe’s Volcano Super Dark coffee beans into the coffee grinder and flicked the switch to the “percolator” setting.

After I filled the pot with water, I poured the ground-up beans into the basket and carefully set it on the stem in the pot.

I put the percolator on a burner over high heat and watched till it started to boil. It was kinda fun to be able to watch the little bubbles start to travel up the glass stem.

Once the water was boiling I turned the heat down so it was just simmering, since coffee get bitter if it boils for too long. Steam rose out of the spout and the lid clattered as the water bubbled up through the stem and filtered back down through the grounds.

When it had perked long enough I poured some into my Gumball mug and added sugar and half-and-half. Not only was it fun to make, it tasted delicious!

*All photos marked with an asterisk were taken by SAJ. You can see more photos in my set SAJ & BabyBug come to visit! or Brenda’s set Weekend at Bethany’s on Flickr.