What A Zoo!

I am way behind on my blogging!  I usually try to blog when the weather is cold or rainy, but we have had a great run of nice weather here in Brownsville. On two of the few rainy days we had, we went to the movies.  More about them later.

One of the things we were excited about doing here was getting together with our "old" neighbor, Rob Gilkerson (son of Jim & Pat) and his wonderful bride, Megan Kinery, and their two kids, Claire & Patrick.  Rob & Megan suggested the Gladys Porter Zoo, here in Brownsville - WHAT FUN - to see the zoo with kids!

Patrick in his cowboy hat and Clair in her Glee Club uniform!

They were great guides around the zoo.

The gorillas are always fun to watch.

Alligators & crocodiles!

Fun to watch the kids feed the giraffes.

The king of beasts enjoying the sunshine.

These two geese were battling each other - for what, I don't know, but one finally ran off.

 

After all of the walking, we stopped for some "Space Age Ice Cream".

Patrick admired his creation - a red sand filled dinosaur.

And Claire made a rainbow colored seashell for her teacher!

(Later, she went back and made another beautifully colored seashell for "someone really special", who turned out to be her mother (awwwww)!

 

The following week, we had the pleasure of going to Rob & Meg's beautiful new home in McAllen.  Both of them are professors at the college there working hard towards tenure.  Rob is doing research in mitochondria (hope I spelled that right) and Megan is in cancer research.  It was fascinating to hear about their research, and heart warming to see how devoted they are to their students.  Many of their students are Mexican and are the first in their families to attend college.  We think the University is lucky to have both of them!

 

Now for our movie reviews.  We saw two movies this month- "Joy" & "The Revenant".  From the trailers, we expected "Joy" to be more of a comedy than it was.  Jennifer Lawrence plays the lead character, Joy, who invented the Miracle Mop.  There were funny parts, but it showed how hard it was for her to get her idea made, then market it.  She faced one obstacle after another including people trying to steal her idea, and a non supportive family that eventually tried to sue for partial ownership of her company. 

"The Revenant" was very intense, as is evident in its trailers, with Leonardo diCapprio doing a fantastic job in the lead role.  It is the story of a guide to American fur trappers who gets attacked and severely injured by a bear. One of the two men left with him to either nurse him back to health or bury him when he died killed his son and left him to die.  He wanted revenge.  It is beautifully filmed and is quite the story.

 

Hope everyone survived the winter storm this week!  I'll be back later with more to see in Brownsville.