We took all of the kids plus a friend of the boys to the San Francisco Zoo today, where we met up with this family (who nicely got us in for free), bringing the total number of kids up to eight. We then spent several hours trying to keep all of the kids in sight. This proved nearly impossible, but after all was said and done we hadn't actually lost any of them, so I guess we did something right. The city was nicely foggy, like it almost always is, and the zoo wasn't too crowded. For the most part, the kids had a great time, running and giggling and gaping at the animals. I think I liked the insect zoo best - especially the drawers of arachnid specimens. Remind me to look up Malaysian Forest Scorpions. The damn things are nearly a foot long! There was an immense tailless whipscorpion too, and a tank full of skin beetles busily skeletonizing a rat carcass. The boys were pretty excited by the room as well. At the end of the day, well after the Three Kid Circus crew had left, we rode the little steam train and dragged the protesting girls off to the van, where they promptly fell asleep.

I've got to say, even though I know zoos are at the forefront of many conservation battles, it's still sad to see a lot of the animals behind bars, especially the lions, who just looked defeated and out of their element. A cage, no matter how gilded, is always a cage. It made me think of the movie, Instinct, with Anthony Hopkins (I can't remember who directed it), which had some interesting insight into the nature of captivity.

We didn't really get an opportunity to engage in conversation with our new acquaintances either. We were all too busy keeping the group together. We forgot to put sunscreen on the kids too, so Willow has a bit of a sunburn. So do I.

On a somewhat less serious note, we noticed that Prairie Dogs meditate and Meerkats sometimes faint.

Right now, the kids are resisting sleep on the eve of their first day of school. It's a lot warmer here than it was up in the city. Crickets are singing in the other room. The Floating World is playing in the background, part of an ongoing subscription series of cds released each month on the full moon. An aptly named band too, full of echoey flute. Quite lovely, actually. Released by the good folks at Dark Holler.