Springtime in Minnesota

What a glorious day to be outside- it was 58 degrees in my car, on the way home from Como Zoo in St. Paul. There were tons of people out, biking, running, walking the dogs, just enjoying the fresh air. Winter is fun at first, that initial snowfall, the first sledding of the season, but it feels like forever sometimes. It's so cold in Minnesota that when it snows, it just sticks around, and I just feel like hibernating. I try to consolidate all of my outdoor trips so I don't have to face the wind chill temps. Eventually I get crabby, not even wanting to do the simple things like going to the gym or play groups, I'd rather just mope and be warm.
When it finally melts though and you get this stretch of warm days, it's like everyone's in it together, everybody understands how great it is, and nobody wants to waste a minute. They know it can change in an instant. It's only March 15, it could snow again, probably will. I never can plant flowers here til at least May 15, that's if I'm lucky.
So today the four of us headed out to Como Zoo. It's such a wonderful place and it is still actually free! They ask for a small donation, but you don't have to. It was very crowded, some people had shorts on. One dude was jogging down the street with no shirt on and "short" shorts. There are always the ones who take it to extremes.
The animals seemed excited to be outside too. I could spend all day looking at the monkeys, gorillas, etc... The gorillas were outside eating snowballs. There was a sign that said that the gorillas will throw dirt and grass at the guests to establish their dominance. I think everybody was hoping that the gorillas would throw snowballs at us too, but it didn't happen- they just ate them. The orangutans and the tamarin monkeys both had had babies over the winter and were carrying them around- so small and cute, a true sign of spring. I have to say that the lions there are extremely frisky. Today, they were flirting and about a year ago we walking in on some serious mating.
We saw everything and then made our way home. We were going to stop for a car wash, but the cars were lined up around the corner, everybody wanting to get that salt and snow off their vehicles. So, we came home and my husband went to take a nap. I have to give him props because he'd been up since 3 pm yesterday, having worked both his part-time job and his full- time, overnight job. He just didn't want to be left behind, wanted to spend that time with us.
SO, I guess I'm off to the gym. I don't want to, but I have to go 8 times a month so that our insurance covers it. I'd much rather be walking one of the many walking/biking trails we have in Chaska. Having a gym membership is very helpful in the winter, but pesky in the summer.