Zoo Day

Each time I take my kids to the zoo, I eye the zoo memberships and contemplate buying one. Then I remember that we go to the zoo about once every two years, so the extra expense doesn’t seem worth it. But I got thinking, would we go to the zoo more often if it did not cost so much money each time we went? I think the answer is yes, we’d go more often. The only way to answer the question for sure is by performing an empirical test. So I bought a zoo membership for our family and one guest.

Today was our first trip to the zoo using the new pass. I like it already. We did not have to stand in line for tickets to get in, we just flashed the card and away we went. I even got to bring Janci as my one guest. The card also got us a discount on the train ride tickets. It was all so easy and I started picturing myself doing individual mommy/child visits to the zoo. If the zoo becomes a regular outing rather than a major event, then that sort of thing becomes possible. I could do birthday trips to the zoo where the birthday child brings a friend. In a couple of weeks my sister is coming to visit. It would be fun to take Patches and her two young kids to the zoo while the other kids are in school. I definitely want to take the kids up several times this summer. It will be good to have outings since we’re not planning any big family trips. I even picture myself ditching all the kids and going to the zoo by myself so that I can follow my own relaxed agenda rather than working crowd control.

The first hour of our zoo visit was a mad dash from exhibit to exhibit. It was hard to shake the “we must hurry to see everything” mentality. Also driving the hurry was the mesh of conflicting agendas. Kiki would have been happy to stay by the elephants, but Gleek wanted to see the mountain lions, and Link wanted to see the monkeys. The penguins broke the mad dash. Everyone was happy to stand and watch the penguins for a long time. That was where we had lunch. I think Kiki liked the wolves best. Gleek loved the red panda. Patches was enthralled by the turtles, it was the one animal he dragged me over to make sure I saw. Link liked all the animals, but even better he loved tracking our progress and path on the map. Everyone liked the train ride and the playground.

Like most busy days, a lot of the trip blurs together. A few things do stand out. We got an impressively close look at the visiting albino crocodile. Patches has crossed that invisible line after which boys are no longer willing to walk with their mothers into the women’s restroom. He was very pleased with his solo trip into the wilds of the Men’s Room. I think my favorite place in the zoo is the small animal house. There is such a variety of creatures packed into a small space and I can get a really close look at them. Or rather I could get a close look if I weren’t so busy keeping track of excited children. They really did very well at staying together. Even Gleek quelled her enthusiasm enough to bounce in place while she waited for us to catch up. Although sometimes she was the one lagging behind because she was determined to look at every single thing in the zoo.

It was fun. We are all tired and a little bit sunburned. Now I just need to weather the cranky until bedtime.