DAY 6

By now we were ready to DO something touristy, so we headed to the “Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium”, armed with coupons for $4 off park entrance thanks to LeRoy and Sandy.  They also loaded us with brochures and maps for local attractions.  A nice little drive southwest of Peoria (the suburb we are officially staying in), and we arrive at the Zoo. 

Armed with sunscreen, hats and water bottles, we enter the zoo and are bombarded by groups of school children, all wearing red shirts, bustling from one area to another.  And here we thought going on a school day would be quieter than a weekend!  That’s okay.  We went from exhibits, to wildlife presentation, to sea lion show.  Sometime after noon, we (and by that I mean “I”) was hungry and so we found a restaurant for a sit-down lunch and bit of a break from the heat.  Our table overlooked a pond with flamingos.  Lovely.

We made our way over to the area with an African safari tram, and waited for the next one to arrive.  It was a nice little drive through wildebeests, antelope, and other animals in the African theme.  By this time it was mid-afternoon and the crowd was thinning.  We wandered through the remaining exhibits of birds and primates  and found we had made the last loop.  The heat, although so wonderful, had overcome us and we both voted on a stop at Wal-Mart to find some items for a cold supper.

We again vegged in our cool and comfortable room before calling it an early night.