Something Missing

My wife Julia and I try to have a date night every week. This week, we wanted to do something festive, consistent with the season. Even Callie has the holiday spirit.

We both looked at the weekly Madison newspaper, and I saw that the Vilas zoo was having an event called “Zoo Lights” featuring holiday lights, activities, vendors, and pictures with Santa.  I thought that it sounded like fun.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the zoo.  Combining the holiday festivities with animals sounded like a nice change of pace from our usual eating out, beer, and live music.


The weather turned out to be a bit crappy. There was a light freezing rain, resulted in icy pavement and bridges.  The good news is that it was easy to find parking (frequently a problem at our zoo).  As we walked past the front gates and paid our $7/per person admission, I was struck by the multitude of bright Christmas displays depicting many of the zoo animals.  I’m not a huge fan of Christmas lights, but Julia is, so I was happy to see the smile lighting up her face.  Okay, let’s see some real animals.  Wait, where were the animals?

Oops!  The real animals were all sleeping and locked away in their buildings.  And the buildings that are normally open during the day….closed at night. My small smile turned upside down, Julia reminded me that the “Zoo Lights” was my idea for date night so make the best of it.  Julia had a great time.

The lights weren’t doing it for me.

Julia says that I look like the evil Emperor in Star Wars.  I think that’s a bit harsh, but perhaps there is a resemblance.

An hour later, I was feeling much better dining on Moules-frites and a Great Lakes Christmas Ale at Brasserie V on Monroe Street.

All’s’ well that ends well.