An Arctic Adventure in Metro Detroit

Just Us and the Animals
We weren't surprised that there were so few people at the Detroit Zoo when we visited last week, since it was still very early in the season. We parked directly across from the main entrance where long lines normally stretch from the ticket booths. Today, there were no lines. We paid our admission and walked through the turnstiles into an empty park.

Empty... except, of course, for the animals.

All's Quiet
Our first stop was the Penguinarium. Rockhopper and king penguins stood statuesque with their heads twisted backwards and their beaks buried between their shoulders. A single macaroni penguin was swimming around the tank, passing us in a flash only to disappear around the corner.

It's difficult enough pointing out a stationary object to a two-year old, let alone a missile traveling under water at 127 miles-per-hour. My son was much more impressed by the pictures of penguins painted on the wall.

The next stop was the Holden Museum of Living Reptiles. They had to put the word "Living" in the name of the building, otherwise, you would have no idea that anything inside was actually alive. The glass display cases were designed to resemble each animals' natural habitat. The snakes and lizards had any number of nooks and crannies to curl up into. We never saw a single rattle twitching nor tongue flickering.

We thought we'd have better luck outside, but the camels, cranes and deer seemed to be as tired of the long Michigan winter as most people I know. They all slept in their pens, well away from the prying eyes of the public.

A beautiful Bengal tiger was putting on a show for a large group of spectators by digging its massive claws into the bark of a felled tree. The crowd swooned, snapping pictures like a group of crazed animal paparazzi. We couldn't get close enough to the cage to catch a clear glimpse, so we decided to move along.

We passed by the barren Great Apes of the Harambee exhibit where a little pigtailed girl stood outside the iron bars calling in a tiny voice, "King Kong... King Kong... Where are you?"

As we ate lunch, I was beginning to wonder if our early trip to the zoo was a waste of time. My son was getting crabby and my wife was getting tired. Maybe we should pack it in and just come back in the summer. That's when we decided to make one final stop at the Arctic Ring of Life.

A Magical Winter Wonderland
In the center of the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit was a massive rock plateau made to look like a glacier. From the winding trail leading to the exhibit, you could see several polar bears peeking around rocks strewn across the glacial surface.

As we got closer to the glacier, we saw a particularly playful polar bear swimming in a pool. He had a large ball between his paws that he rolled over and pushed down below the water's surface. The ball popped back up into the air, and the polar bear dove across the pool to retrieve it. Next, he balanced the ball on the tip of his paw and tossed it with all the grace of a Shaquille O'Neal free throw.

Each time the polar bear came to the surface and performed another trick with his ball, my son would laugh wildly, clapping his hands and pointing. After several minutes, we decided to move along.

Just around the corner from the polar bears was a group of seals who seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as their arctic neighbors. They barked as they waddled across the ice then hopped into water, swimming all the way up to the observation window on their backs.

The trail took a long, circular bank like an entrance ramp onto a freeway and stopped at a door that went beneath the glacier. Inside, two windows stretched from the floor to the ceiling, providing an underwater view of the seals' pool.

My son ran to one of the windows and immediately climbed up onto the sill. He pointed to the seals that were swimming past the window with a smile from ear to ear.

Around the corner from the windows was a 70-foot-long clear, underwater tube. As we walked down the tube, seals were swimming all around us. A blue hue was cast over everything and everybody in the tube. It looked like we were characters in a high-budget science fiction movie, and my son was mesmerized. His eyes darted from one seal to the other.

A Perfect Day at the Zoo
When we exited the underwater arctic exhibit, it took a moment for our eyes to readjust to the daylight. The afternoon was beginning to cool as the early spring sun began to head toward the horizon. For the first time all day, my son seemed content in his stroller; he was obviously tired from our long day outside.

At the exit of the Arctic Ring of Life exhibit, one road circled toward the front of the park, while the other headed back in the direction from which we came. My wife asked, "Are you ready to go?" I stopped to take one last look at the polar bears on the glacier behind us. One was looking back at us like he was waiting to hear my reply.

I said to her, "Let's go see if those camels are awake."

Springtime in Dearborn

In Like a Lion... Out Like a Lamb
If March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, then the lambs in Michigan are a particularly ornery variety. Just ten days ago, the high temperature in metro Detroit loomed right around the freezing mark. It looked as though the lambs of the lakes were sharpening their fangs again.

But here we are, just two days from April Fool's Day, and the high temperature in Dearborn is 65 degrees. Now, before all the retirees who have fled to Florida for the winter start checking the airfare back to Detroit, let me warn them not to pack their golf clubs so quickly. This time of year, it's not unusual to have a full tank of gas in your lawnmower as well as your snowblower.

The First Signs of Spring
As I was scraping the frost off my car windows this morning, I noticed something purple jutting from the ground in the flower bed next to the driveway. When I came home for lunch with my sunroof open and my jacket tossed in the back seat, I saw that the purple object had morphed into a beautiful, vibrant flower.

Could spring truly be on its way? Is it time to start fertilizing the lawn and cleaning off the patio furniture? Maybe I should think about taking down the Christmas lights, or putting away the snow shovel. It seems like just yesterday I was rushing my son out the back door to see the first snowfall of the season. He pointed to the sky with his eyes wide open, giggling as the falling flakes tickled his face. Today, we were out in the backyard without our winter jackets, drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Michigan may not be the only place where you can get a 40-degree swing in the temperature in just a few short days. But there aren't many places where that 40-degree swing can go from cool to warm and then 40 degrees from warm back to cool in the same week. It may be murder on the sinuses, but it's what I love most about living in Michigan.

Enjoy Every Day
If every day was 65 degrees, or if I knew it was going to be 65 degrees or warmer for the next several days, weeks or months, I would not have enjoyed the day as much as I did. I would not have noticed the budding flowers next to the driveway, nor would I have found it so important to spend extra time working on my pavement artistry with my son. As it was, today was a wonderful spring day, made even better by the fact that tomorrow is likely to be much cooler... if not snowing. The fertilizer and patio furniture will have to wait.

Still, today I made the most drastic move so far in acknowledging the oncoming season. I actually took the plastic container of sidewalk salt off my front porch. Of course, I put the container within easy reach just inside the front door. This is Michigan, after all.