Chi-Town Day 2: Lincoln Park Zoo

By MAGGIE WANG

A big day in the Ding household: Kevin Ding's first time on a public-transportation bus at the age of 39!

Sedona and Maven will not be able to say the same, as they have this documentation of them taking the Chicago Transit Authority's bus No. 151 to Lincoln Park Zoo. (Kevin was pretty impressed by the cleanliness and organization of the bus system, although we did encounter some crowds and delays on our way home.)

We met up with the (Soop) Boyd, (Mag) Lev and (Bry) Suh families.

See the polar bear?

See the brown bear? That's Emily Boyd between our girls. (Emily's brother Matthew was stroller-bound at the time.)

Capturing four of the eight kids. We're missing Matthew, Ethan, Aidan and Parker ... but it's hard to get them together!

YAY! We got Parker in there (and we'll work on a getting Parker's big brothers Ethan and Aidan in a group photo at the Boyds' July 5 barbeque still to come!)

On our walk to the petting-zoo area, Mag took some scenic family photos for us with the Windy City skyline in the background.

Many people say Sedona looks like Kevin and Maven like me, but from this pic, I say that is definitely Kev's baby girl he is holding!

Posing with and eating my favorite popcorn: Garrett's!  Sedona agrees, saying: "It's my favorite, too!"

Learning about and checking out worms!

The kids had a fun time climbing into a John Deere tractor and petting a black rabbit.

As was the case in New York's Central Park a year ago, we found a tire swing in a this Lincoln Park playground near the zoo.

After we walked through the zoo in the morning, Mag, Bry and Kevin played softball for Teddy's Chicago Tribune team at famous Grant Park downtown (a fun reunion from Kev's bachelor party). They came from behind and won!

We finished up the second day in the Second City with our bedtime routine: a bit of TV ("Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" on DVD here), potty, brushing teeth, reading two books and good night!