30 March 2025
Today looks like it’ll be our only nice day:
Yes, it’s probably going to rain later, and yes we came here to see the butterflies, but that’s an indoor activity so it doesn’t matter what the weather’s doing. Today, we’re going to take advantage of the warm and not-quite-raining-yet and explore a bit outside.
Our first stop is the Calvin Ecosystem Preserve:
A short, free hike on the campus of Calvin University:
The trails were wide and easy to follow:
with occasional viewing docks over the various ponds:
WILDLIFE!!!
I wasn’t sure we’d see anything given how cold and wet the morning was.
I may have slipped on this bridge:
Everything was wet and slick!
There were some deer running through the woods here, but they hopped a fence and I couldn’t get a good picture of them 🙁
These squirrels, however, sat still enough for pictures:
Lots of water but very little activity today:
An exploded tree:
Leaves still hanging on:
Another pair of ducks:
Black-capped chickadee:
Sparrow:
Red-bellied woodpecker:
Downy woodpecker:
I feel like there would be a ton more life here on warm, sunny days, but I’m just thankful the rain held off so we could explore!
And since the rain hasn’t started yet, onward! to John Ball Zoo:
They’re currently setting up for Lantern Fest:
So there are all sorts of fun decorations up:
Unfortunately, since they just opened last week, and it’s still pretty cold out, not all of the animals are out yet 🙁
Sleepy pygmy hippo:
Stork:
Free-range wallaby!!!
This area was double gated, which seemed strange to me until I realized these guys (there were like 4-5 of them) were free to roam around outside their exhibit! I even got to pet this guy:
We did duck inside the amphibian house, which was nice and warm, but unfortunately the change in temperatures combined with the humidity meant a lot of the glass was fogged up 🙁
Look at this lunker frog!!!
I love how he just melts into a puddle!
Cool blue frog:
Creepy limbless, eyeless swimming nightmares:
Back outside, we found a playful otter:
This lynx was trying so hard to get to the porcupine in the next enclosure:
Not sure if this guy is licking part of himself or a baby?
Sleepy snow leopard:
look at the size of his paw!
Peccaries:
Meerkat:
Two owls:
It was really hard shooting the white guy through the fence!
This poor tiger was just pacing back and forth:
there was a connecting pathway down to the lower part of his enclosure where another tiger was sleeping, but it was blocked off 🙁 poor guy!
Dear red panda- that can’t be a comfortable sleeping position!
More lantern festival decorations:
I bet they look really cool at night when everything is lit up!
Us and a SNAKE! it’s a snake… oh, it’s a snake:
Fish outside the penguin house:
a couple of ducks too:
a penguin!
The lighting in here was really strange, so most of my pictures didn’t turn out.
We had seen the monkey enclosure from above and assumed it was empty, but when we came around to the other side, we found all the monkeys huddled together under canopies out of the rain:
Time to visit the indoor desert critters!
I love this guy’s leafy tail!
Again, how is that comfortable for sleeping!?
Armadillo!!!
There’s a snake in my boot!
These stretchy guys were my favorite!
look how their little fingers stick to the glass!
Chameleon:
Green guys:
Snake face:
Green snake pile:
Classic frog:
Spotted frog:
Sneaky caiman:
(I don’t remember the exact species of most of these guys, sorry!)
And finally, one last peek at the pygmy hippo to see if it was up:
Nope, still sleeping!
Matt and I were both pretty famished after all our exploring, so I found a place that sounded interesting- the Old Goat:
The decor was certainly eclectic but the food was pretty good- Matt got fancy mac’n’cheese and, since they were still serving brunch, I tried their French toast special- it was ok, but I had been craving a giant pretzel and regret not ordering that instead, so we’ll probably be back tomorrow 🙂
Shortly after we got back to our hotel, the tornado sirens started going off. I’ve never been at a hotel when that’s happened before and we weren’t really sure what we were supposed to do, so like good Midwesterners, we opened the shades of our 4th story room and watched the storm blow through:
The siren went off for about 25 minutes straight, then on and off for another half hour or so after. Turns out a tornado did touch ground a little to the west of us, but besides crazy heavy rainfall and a lot of wind, we were fine!