Zoo - May 2010

Ethan and I had the opportunity to go to the zoo again in May - another perk of being a mostly-stay-at-home mom. We ventured out for $2 Tuesday and at first I was stoked when it only took us 20 minutes to get there! We were out the door a little later than I wanted, but still managed to leave by about 10am. It didn't matter. The place was PACKED!! The parking lot and overflow were both full. Meanwhile there were people actually waiting to see if someone would leave so they could take their spot. Uhh... the zoo had only been open for an hour and a half! Anyway, I decided to follow the signs to the over-overflow parking which nearly brought Ethan to tears! He couldn't figure out why we would be heading away from the zoo! Turns out the over-overflow parking was the next exit off the freeway! We got there, parked and got in line for the school bus shuttle. Of course, Ethan was able to see the silver lining in this... it meant he got to ride a bus!! I tried to remain just as positive as I attempted to get Ethan on the bus with one hand and load the stroller up for transport with the other. [You can see in the top pic all the strollers loaded on our bus!] Finally, an HOUR after we had first pulled into the zoo parking lot, we were walking through the gates. {i.e. Mommy may have been smiling through gritted teeth and mumbling under her breath by then.}

After all that, we did have a fairly enjoyable time at the zoo. Yes, there were TONS of people, but Ethan actually did better than our last visit and was much better about staying with me. Picture-wise, we got some of the animals...

[Is that not a stereotypical lion pose or what?! Very kingly.]

And since Ethan was busy looking at the animals, I got lots of pictures of the back of Ethan's head. Good thing he's got a cute head!As usual, the seals, fish and underwater exhibits were my favorite. I think the fact that it's a little cooler down there, there's lots of room for everyone to see and it's much quieter helps!We also did a couple things we hadn't done on our last visit, including playing the drums in the African section:

And going to see the eagles:I think there were two eagles in the exhibit and one was sitting on a branch in a very typical stately perched position, while the other was bathing! We're talking almost fully submerged and splashing around. I'd never seen an eagle do that! It was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I couldn't zoom in enough to get a good picture.

Our last stop of the day was supposed to be the polar bears....but I decided to avoid a major melt-down from Ethan and let him play in the huge sandbox. I had said, "no, it's getting late... time to go home" at first, but decided the battle was not worth it and I could stick around another 5-10 minutes so he could play in the sand.It still wasn't long enough for Ethan, so we made the deal that next time that would be one of our first stops. Granted, I don't plan on going back for $2 Tuesday until at least September when kids go back to school! I don't think the savings out-weighed the effort it took to get there! [We didn't get home until almost 5pm and Ethan and I both crashed!]