Friday, February 1st
Day 19


Here's a couple more ways that we have managed to handle this whole prolonged process.  The St. Louis Zoo is just a couple miles from us because the hospital borders Forest Park, the large city park here where museums and lakes and science center and zoo are all located.  We've managed to take breaks during the nice days and drive over to the zoo.  At this time of year we can find free parking and entrance is free.  We've seen penguins, great apes, the large cats, and the sea lions being fed, among many other interesting animals. The kids also got to see the primate house and the bears being fed.

I've also enjoyed some good long walks in the park, following along beside the lakes.  John's youngest sister, Esther, is the one who kidnapped me last Sabbath for my first long walk.  Her oldest son, our nephew, David Ward, is a Family Practice physician at Loma Linda and he told Esther to take me out for a walk and to lunch.  So she very explicitly followed his instructions, to my advantage!

We walked by the ice rink and enjoyed seeing the fire that burns constantly and makes the skating experience seem more authentic with the fresh wood smoke smell.  Following the path along the creek, we saw interesting and unusual ducks and even some very normal and pretty mallards.  As we continued along in the sun, we crossed an interesting metal bridge, saw some great rock formations, and  could picture how beautiful the park would be in the summer with flowers blooming and trees fully-leafed out.

We called Ruth and she wanted to go to lunch with us.  That required us to walk back to the Lodge and from there we walked to our restaurant.  It was a lovely place with white tablecloths and a great brunch menu.  Ruth and I got French Onion Soup....soooo good.  The man outside washing windows had recommended it to us!  While eating, Jeremy had called and said I needed to come to do some crowd control so before long we headed back to John's room.  It was such a lovely diversion.

The picture above is me in the Sea Lion walk-through under-water tunnel.  Such a gorgeous way to view their antics and behavior!