Cerulean blog.

Blogger.com was down last night, so this is actually the JUNE 9 posting.

I took the day off today (June 9), which has an unsurprisingly positive effect on the quality of any given Monday. Besides, today was the first bone fide summer day, a real cerulean day, both literally and figuratively. Temps mid-70s, and a lot of friendly puffy white clouds.

First thing was a bit of child maintenance, however. Early in the morning both Lilly and Ann were examined by Dr. M., their pediatrician, Lilly for her pre-kindergarten check, Ann for a four month’s check. According to medical opinion, both are in good health. So far, Lilly is on her way to becoming a large human being, for better or worse; she’s taller and heavier than most in her age cohort. Ann isn’t, but it’s early yet.

Had a late breakfast (early lunch) at the Moondance Café. The leisurely pace of your typical cerulean day is usually set by a breakfast without borders — that is, no obligation to finish up and move on. The breakfast itself doesn’t have to be fancy. In my case today, jus’ eggs, potatoes, biscuits and gravy, and I would have substituted grits for the potatoes, but we’re too far north. Yuriko had some kind of breakfast burrito, defined by a marvel of a sauce. Lilly knew what she wanted, and got it: eggs, bacon, toast.

Early in the afternoon, we went to the zoo. Technically, it’s called the Chicago Zoological Park, but everyone, including the zoo staff, calls it the Brookfield Zoo, after the suburb it’s located. It doesn’t quite have the charm of the Lincoln Park Zoo in the city, which is characterized by some excellent old zoo buildings. But Brookfield has space, a nice layout and landscape, and a superb collection of animals.

Lilly led the way. First to the butterfly exhibit, which has some 600 kinds under a green house sort of structure. Hard to believe they were all once vile larvae. Then we passed by other animals, including marsupials, bears, and hippos, and eventually Lilly and I attended the Brookfield’s dolphin show, which was entertaining enough for something that tries too hard to be educational. My experience with dolphin shows is fairly limited, but I seem to recall more motion and daring-do (or at least more hoops) at Sea World. But Sea World’s educational pretense, perhaps, is wafer thin in comparison.