It was a spur of the moment, great road trip weather, nothing in our schedule kind of morning yesterday. So my husband woke up our youngest, and announced to our oldest "Road trip!". Two words that evoke smiles on our children every time.

Everyone raced around the house to get set for the day and ready to, especially since we don't know where. (Okay, the children don't know. But it is inevitable that at some point we will vear to somewhere even we didn't plan on going.)

On our way out to the van I look and each of my girls has a backpack with them. I have to laugh a little out loud. How far do they want to go today?

In an hour and a half we were at the Henry Vilas Madison Zoo. We had heard they were doing some new exhibits there and we hadn't been in a couple of years. (It's also free and complete with beach and picnic areas - www.vilaszoo.org )

We toured the buildings we had seen on previous trips. Then we saw they added a tropical aviary building where you can walk right through among all the birds, and an endangered species carousel. Of course we did both. But what was really different this trip was that I didn't get into teacher mode. I just enjoyed the experience with my family.

Our road trip didn't take us too much farther. We debated at a chinese buffet stop whether to go see the Kincade exhibit in the mall or catch a movie at a cinema up there, but in the end we were too relaxed and took the scenic route home. Upon which we discovered a great state park we will have to stop at some time soon, perhaps on our next road trip.

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