Memorial Day marked the beginning of summer for my family, and we started our summer last week with a day trip to Como Park Zoo & Conservatory, a perpetual family favorite.

I don’t have clear memories of my first trip to Como because it’s a place my family’s gone to since I was tiny, myself. This large, gorgeous park was constructed between 1891 and 1922, and it remains a staple of family life for anyone near the Twin Cities area. Admission to the zoo and conservatory is free, though donations are gratefully accepted for the work of maintaining the park and for the conservation programs to which the organization contributes.

The grounds have evolved a bit since their earliest construction. Our favorite place to park is at the West Picnic Grounds, which are closest to the zoo and conservatory, contain a well-maintained toilet facility, and include a playground suitable for children ages 3 and up. We like to take a picnic to one of the many picnic tables at the grounds and eat before heading into the zoo at its main entrance.

The main entrance features several well-maintained carnival rides for all ages, for fees that help offset the costs. It’s a fun place to start, or end, the trip. The zoo itself is small, and easily walkable, but features a variety of animals in clean, appropriate habitats. Last week, we saw the tigers, giraffes, gorillas, orangutans, polar bears, bison, zebras, penguins, and many other animals, large and small. The zoo’s popular sea lion exhibit and show is on hiatus this summer, as the entire area devoted to aquatics is under construction and slated to reopen in 2020.

However, that’s not really a deterrent for visitors. The day we were there last week, the temperatures were pleasant and the park was full of school groups taking their end-of-year field trips. We enjoyed a visit to the conservatory as well as the zoo, and my preschoolers loved the children’s gallery inside that allowed them to play with water in an exhibit about planting.

C in particular liked seeing all the plants in the conservatory. She loved the sunken garden, laughed under the spray in the fern room, and excitedly gasped at the sight of a cacao tree. Both girls loved the Japanese garden, and the area that let them build their own paths in puzzle form.

We were mildly disappointed that the butterfly house was not yet ready for visitors; visits in the past have been favorites. But it’s early in the season for butterflies, and the house will open June 15.

Finally, though mine are not yet excited about the big carousel, I’ll relate that it’s one of my favorite places, and has been since I was small. For $2, take a ride on Cafejian’s Carousel, named for the man who helped rescue and restore it. Built in 1914, the carousel features 68 horses.

We finished off our day with ice cream and play at the playground. Como itself is much larger than our day would suggest; the total grounds feature a lake with walking trails and a golf course nearby. Locals enjoy much more than the zoo. But it’s well worth a visit.

If you go: Concessions are available at the park, and it’s all that luscious carnival food you might love. It’s also pricy, as concessions are one way the park is able to maintain a free admission policy. I generally choose to simply “eat” the cost as a contribution to the park, but if money is a concern for you, take a picnic. The grounds are lovely. Just don’t feed the animals.

One of my little girls turned four this week and her big birthday party is on Saturday.

Since we first started talking about what she wanted for her birthday party, the overriding theme has been princesses. A is very interested in dressing like a princess, wearing tiaras, and having adventures like her favorite Disney princesses do. She loves Elsa and Anna from Frozen, in particular.

So we started to plan a party that was mostly Frozen-themed, but generally involved letting everyone dress like royalty and eat a lot of cake. (Every time I asked what we should serve for lunch, A said cake. Chocolate cake. Cupcakes. Ice cream cakes. Just, you now, cake.) We branched into letting people dress like pirates if they wanted, too, in case they weren’t feeling princess-y.

It helped that her Uncle Ryan promised to wear an eye-patch.

And then, she watched her first episode of “My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic.”

Oh, boy. Suddenly, it’s not just about princesses and pirates; it has to be about ponies, too.

So we have dress up things for princesses, and for pirates. We have Frozen-themed plates and snowflake sparkles for the tables. And we have a My Little Pony-themed cake and piñata. It looks like Rainbow Dash.

I’ve decided to call the party a triple-P bash.

At the heart of it is love for a little girl who loves fantasy and stories. We have castles to color and costumes to dress up in, a “tea party” menu with lots of cake, and all the adults playing along to dress up, too. My nieces, who are older, are particularly excited to be re-wearing their prom dresses so they can be princesses, too.

As adults, we often forget the small joy of being ourselves, letting our imaginations run wild, and playing along with the fantasy. I’m excited that we’ll have an opportunity to do just that tomorrow for A’s birthday.

I think I might wear an eye-patch with my crown.

We celebrated my niece Kayla’s 18th birthday Saturday in our hometown of Chippewa Falls, Wis.

I actually only lived in Chippewa (which residents pronounce CHIP-wa) for about ten years, but I did finish high school there, and most of my immediate family still resides in the vicinity. It’s a pretty town grown from a lumbering community, and it is probably best known for its hometown brewery, Leinenkugels, and the brief mention it had in the movie Titanic as Jack Dawson’s home town.

However, there’s plenty in Chippewa to enjoy. I realized at the end of our day Saturday that we’d had pretty much the quintessential Chippewa experience for the day, missing only the brewery tour, which I recommend for the of-drinking-age set.

After a hearty breakfast at my parents’ home, we took our three-year-olds to Irvine Park, established in 1906 by the William Irvine family. Over the years, the park has grown to encompass 318 acres of natural woods and cultivated spaces, making it the place for residents and their guests to linger year-round. A zoo in the middle of the park includes a variety of guests, including tigers, hyenas, and bears, as well as a farm animal petting zoo that our girls adored.

Numerous families were taking advantage of the fine weather to picnic at the park, and we counted birthday balloons at five different pavilions on our way in. Our girls also enjoyed playing on the playground equipment that was just their size, across the main park road from the zoo.

When we were tired out and ready for lunch, I called Bresina’s Carry Out. Bresina’s doesn’t have a web page, and as the proprietor informed me when I went into the storefront on the edge of the park, he never intends to get one. A quick web search will turn up the phone number and the Facebook page that features their menu.

Bresina’s has been serving fresh broasted chicken and fried fish, sandwiches, jo-jos, and assorted other local favorite foods for decades. There’s no true seating area at the storefront, because the locals know to call ahead and come and pick up their food to take home or into Irvine for a picnic. We got fish and chicken, jo-jos (fried wedge potatoes), and cole slaw.

From the time I called within the park until the time we got children loaded up and to Bresina’s, fifteen minutes, our food was ready. It smelled absolutely delicious, and I decided to add a dessert that is also a quintessential Chippewa experience: Olson’s Ice Cream.

Olson’s employees make ice cream on site daily, and we stopped by on our way back to my parents’ for a quart of chocolate and a quart of black raspberry to share. If we’d been in less of a rush to eat our chicken, we’d have gone in to get a waffle cone filled with one of the daily flavors in the ice cream “bar” at the front of the restaurant.

We had our chicken for lunch, and for dessert, we chose to fill a bowl with a scoop each of the chocolate and the black raspberry, and as the girls said, it was “yummy.”

We finished our day with a bowling and pizza party at Ojibwa Golf and Bowl, another classic Chippewa spot. There are numerous golf courses in the area, and at least one other bowling alley, but this one hits all the nostalgic notes. I bowled a 76. It’s not my best sport.

If you’re ever in the area, just off the I-94 and I-29 junction in northwest central Wisconsin, stop in. It’s worth the trip.