Christmas Train Show and Zoo Lights

 

Today, besides the five of us who usually go to brunch after Mass, there were two other people, and we stayed pretty late. Then Travalon and I went to Olbrich Gardens, since OK Cap had mentioned there was a model train show there. She was planning to meet us, but she had a flat tire and had to wait for someone to come help her with it. Here are some photos and a video from the train show. First is the cutest little badger ever. (Speaking of Badgers, congratulations to our volleyball team for winning the national championship!!)

And look at this cute little helicopter cookie ornament!

Travalon loves Texaco memorabilia.

This looks like a train coming out of a tunnel.

And this is a cute little Christmas train with a little red truck following it.

The weird thing was that we were supposed to get free admission as members, but for some reason I could not find my membership card in my wallet, and they couldn't find me on their list, so we just paid. It wasn't that much. Afterwards they said it was their error - I was on their list. So they refunded us. We also went into the conservatory and looked at the plants and the koi.

We also went outside and walked to the Thai pavilion.

There was a jazz vocalist singing at two, so we went to the concert, and she did a lot of Christmas stuff and some Brazilian songs. OK Cap joined us there, then we all went to Bierock to watch the Packers play the Ravens. The Pack were up by two scores at the start of the fourth quarter, but then their defense couldn't seem to do anything, and Special Teams once again seemed to be working for the other team, so in a nail-biter they won by one point when the Ravens tried to get a two-point conversion after their touchdown to be up by one point rather than taking the extra point to tie the score - and the Packers broke it up in the end zone. Then the Ravens tried an onside kick, but the Pack recovered with 42 seconds left in the game, so then they just took a knee. Bierock brought around Jello shots for the first few touchdowns, but then they stopped, which is just as well because between that and the beer we were drinking, we were getting pretty darn buzzed!

After the game, Travalon and I went to the Zoo Lights display. I liked this fish. A tuna?

Here I am with butterfly wings!

A couple of sandhill cranes with cattails.

A lot of the tree trunks were covered with lights.

Near the polar bears there was a whole forest of Christmas trees that we walked through, and that was magical.

Flowers, a peacock, blue herons (with penguins in the background), and a reindeer.

At the gift shop, Travalon bought a stuffed red panda that is larger than a lot of real-life dogs. It's so big! He wasn't sure what to name it, so I suggested Dandy Panda, and that's what he went with. I will try to take a photo of Dandy Panda with something for perspective soon. It's mind-boggling the different sizes of stuffed red pandas that Travalon now has. Little Candy Panda is tiny next to Dandy!

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