Thursday, we dropped the big van off at the dealer to see if they can fix the really annoying, but not life-threatening, issue with the dashboard crashing out on a downhill every single time. It dings when it happens. We’ll see. They haven’t called us. However, that allowed us to use one of Harlan’s birthday presents, which was a trip to Kentucky Down Under for four. I think I went when I was a kid, but it’s been a long time. He and Porter had a great time. They especially loved feeding and petting the kangaroos–so soft! There was much discussion if the kangaroos are softer than Frank or not. They saw some with joeys in their pouches which was very exciting (and to be honest, a little disturbing–those poor mama kangaroos). Feeding the emu was an adventure! They peck quickly, but not hard, so it doesn’t hurt, but it’s surprising. They both laughed a lot about it. But later, on the second time in, Porter went off to feed the emu on his own, and he said, “I didn’t get scared and drop all the food, so it pecked over and over from my hand.”
The animal talk was also great, and we learned about umbrella birds (and why you might not want one as a pet–KDU gets all their birds from people who need to rehome them), leopard tortoises, and a boa imperator. Then the boys got a fried pie from the Dutch bakery in Horse Cave on the same land as KDU, so the agritourism business was successful, I think. It was a fun outing and absolutely one Gilbert and Seamus would have rolled their eyes at, so I’m glad we just had the younger kids with us.
On Friday, Gilbert was itching to try playing golf, so I took him to the nearby, public 9-hole course. Some of his baseball teammates play golf for their fall sport, and he’s eager to give it a go. I know nothing about golf, but I walked along with him and cheered him on and hung out in the shade where I could find it. He was elated, so it wasn’t hard to have a good time myself, despite the actual boredom, and we saw some women riding in carts with men who were playing when they weren’t. Gilbert and I discussed this.
We’ll see. He wants to go to the driving range today and hit some balls. Is this a quickly passing phase?
Academic Leigh Speaking 