A Year in the Life of a Czech Plush Monkey.
   
Week 6:   22 - 28 February 2004
Sunday, 22nd

A monkey can only sleep so long before a day ends and another sleep cycle begins. Having snoozed Saturday away with Lukášý, Sunday could be no day of rest. It was time to get up and get active!

“Trees, please,” he begs. “Big, big, big trees!”

We suggest Muir Woods and… Hey! Where’d Opice go?
Honnnnnnk!
There he is, in the car honking at us to get on the road.

Well you can’t blame him for loving Sequoias like this official Gifford Pinchot tree.

Sierra Club plaque to Gifford Pinchot

Muir Woods Thomas Pinchot Tree

Vermilion Cap Musrooms--DO NOT EAT!
Banana Slug (not from UC Santa Cruz)Do you think we should tell Monkey it’s good luck to kiss a banana slug? Some say they’ll turn your lips numb if you do. Yup, we should tell him.

Monday, 23rd

Monkey heard people talking about the “bananas” in the woods. That punched his buttons! He climbed 250 feet up before we could talk him back down, exhausted.

We had to explain the people meant banana slugs, and that it’s not polite to eavesdrop on parts of passersby’s conversations. He agreed to listen to the whole discussion next time.

Then he scurried down the walkway searching the ground for slugs. “A banana’s a banana’s a banana,” he called back over his shoulder disappearing round the bend (where he often goes). When we caught up to him he’d found vermilion cap mushrooms.

He didn’t like that name. “They should be called RED cap mushrooms,” he insisted over and over and over.

Tuesday, 24th "When's lunch?"

Opice knows better than to eat poisonous red mushrooms. And after kissing the slug his tongue went numb making it hard to say anything except yum-yum [his 3rd most favorite thing to say after "mine!" and "gimme!" and "why?" and "no!" and "triskaidekaphobia" (etc)].

Monkey sat down on the bridge kicking his heals against the wood. "Where's my lunch?" he wanted to know. "Can we go now?"

When's lunch?

Wednesday, 25th

After lunch Monkey takes us to “see the flying saucer.”

The Marin County Civic Center certainly looks like a spaceship from some angles. From above it resembles the starship Enterprise. Monkey wonders if Frank Lloyd Wright’s design influenced Star Trek? Starship Enterprise

It’s known the building’s blue domes inspired those on queen Amidala's palace in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Inside the building’s very futuristic, too. The sci-fi film Gattaca was shot in large part here. (check Thursday)

Marin Co. Civic Center by F. L Wright
Monkey hints, "This day contains an 'easter egg' surprise if clicked."
UFO or NCC-1701 ?
Monkey ponders the Civic Center skydome

Thursday, 26th

"The Gattaca Gallery"

It’s seldom Monkey falls silent. It’s even less often he sits still. Monkey’s doing both! He’s sitting; he’s quiet; he’s perfect.

Be very very afraid.


Opice climbs a dome for a better view.
Opice climbs onto the roof for a better view.

Friday, 27th

Monkey ignores the KEEP OFF roof sign

Starship Enterprise's saucer section terrace restaurant--in Monkey's dreams!

Saturday, 28th

Dining alfresco on the Saucer Terrace

(more like sans Fresca)

Opice’s getting tired of waiting for a server to come take his order. As you might expect, Monkey is a terrible tipper. He never dares eat at the same restaurant twice. Looks like his reputation preceded him this time.


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