Weekend Fun, and Glad Tidings!

We spent a long weekend at my parents' new house at Alpine Lake, West Virginia, swimming, canoeing, and playing lots of Boggle.  The house was impressive, as was all of the wildlife we saw: deer, groundhogs, chipmunks, a wide variety of birdlife, really unusual moths (that kept Rob and Roma very entertained).  Olive enjoyed a dip in the lake, having gone for her first "swim" in a friend's pool a few days before.  

On Sunday morning, we rose at the crack of dawn to head up to visit the Pittsburgh Zoo.  It was a gorgeous 2 1/2 hour drive through winding, hilly roads through WV farmland into Pennsylvania. The zoo was packed, what with it being free admission for fathers, a weekend, the beginning of summer vacations, and there being a special dragon festival happening that weekend.  It was exceptionally hot, so we were happy to be there before it grew too sweltering and crowded.  Rob had been in contact with the head gorilla keeper there regarding an internship, but they kept missing each other.  We popped in on Kellie and her family afterward, and while we were there my mom called, telling us that Roseanne, the gorilla keeper, had called that right after we'd left the zoo.  Bummer.

To combat the heat, our families walked to the local ice cream shop in their Brookline neighborhood, Scoops on the Boulevard, and enjoyed some treats before we got back on the road.  It was great to see Kellie and Mike, Jack, Gail, and their newest addition, Iris.  She was wonderfully small, with the most amusing expressions and ssssslow movements.  Very funny little girl.

Back in Maryland today the phone rang with a call from the Pittsburgh Zoo.  I sat with Olive,  listening anxiously to Rob speaking with Roseanne...who offered him the internship, saying that no other applicants interested her as much.  He had applied to three zoos - Pittsburgh, the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, Rhode Island, and the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but the Pittsburgh internship was both the most coveted and the most difficult to get.  He'll be working with the gorillas as well as their painted dogs (African wild dogs that resemble a coyote-hyena hybrid.  There are currently nine puppies that were nursed by a domestic dog after their mother died after they were born).  We are all very, very excited!  Now I can begin hunting again for housing in Pittsburgh, now that we'll be heading there in August for sure.