Life in Alpine

BIRTHDAY AT THE ZOO: DAY NINETEEN Sunday, June 12th, was Max's birthday and we went to Idaho City to the zoo. Idaho City is about an hour's drive from Alpine, maybe a bit more. It is not a particularly attractive city, but it has some nice neighborhoods. The zoo turned out to be fairly nice. I have mixed feelings about zoos, but this one had some interesting features. It was organized by region of the world, with an African section, an Asian section, etc., and with sort of an anthropological dimension to it, i.e., it provided information about the importance of the animals in the cultures surrounding their usual habitat. It also made an effort to rise consciousness about the plight of animals in the wild. It was fairly small, just about right for a 3-year old boy. It gave me an opportunity to use both my cameras: the digital Canon and the Yashica film camera. Here are some pictures:

After the zoo we went to Chuck-a-Rama for dinner. I'll have to say that the name "Chuck-a-Rama" does not inspire confidence, but the food was pretty good. There was certainly a lot of it!

It was an "all-you-can-eat" sort of place, and I would guess that the amount of food dished up there in one day would feed an entire village in many parts of the world. Maybe Max's face is as good a comment as any.

After dinner we went to a park and dropped off Ellen, Jenny and Max at the playground while Paul and I went to Sam's Club. It was unbelievably crowded. So this is what the people of Idaho Falls do on a beautiful Sunday afternoon! I thought I might find some omeprazole at a good price, but it was more expensive than Rite Aid with a coupon, so I just looked around.

On the drive home the day turned dark, we went through a heavy rain storm, and then suddenly the sun came out and we were treated to a rainbow that was closer to the ground than any we had ever seen. I grabbed the Yashica and took this shot through the windshield as the car was moving:

It was a lovely climax to a very special day.