adventure time

Today we went to the zoo again - our first time since January, since it got warm for real. Our nice quiet private zoo of the winter is gone. Today's zoo was populated with school field trips galore along with a million other people. I've gotten spoiled parking right at the entrance; today we parked at Colorado Blvd. Literally. In order to deal with the crowds, which I am rarely a fan of, I made a little list of why today's zoo trip rocked.

• Having a membership. Psycho Kat can keep it in check and not have to see EVERY animal each trip, because we'll be back. To get an idea of how I USED to be, just ask Roger how many museums we visited during the course of a 3 day stay in DC about 8 years ago!


• We got to see a bunch of animals that have been hiding on other visits. A bunch of different cats were really active - the cheetah was even growling! - the little white fox by the polar bears finally stuck his head out, and the river otter put on a nice water show and hung out in his little glass-walled den for our viewing pleasure.


• Iron bladder Katie. I've been a little afraid of how we're going to handle the bodily functions with my posse on our adventures, but girlfriend held it for after 5 hours and didn't need to go until we got home. And then she went 3 times in 30 minutes once we WERE at home, because she didn't want to have a rest. Showing that she is also a regular 3 year old.


• One good thing about the increase in people is the excellent people watching opportunities. One of my favorites was the guy in the Harley wife-beater t-shirt walking hand in hand with his close-to-teen-aged son. Very cute.
  
  
  


• The merry-go-round. Katie started talking about this as soon as we got in the car to head out. She stayed just as excited during our walk around the animals. I liked how Alex has no problem climbing things that SHOULD frighten him, going down the slide or things that move freak him out. You can't get the full flavor from the picture, but while Katie was grinning the whole time and just having a ball riding the non-moving rhinoceros, Alex was gripping my arm and sitting stone faced during the entire ride.





• Messiest ice cream cones EVER! We grabbed some cones for the hike back to the car after the merry-go-round. Alex is the world's greatest ice cream cone eater. The chocolate/vanilla swirl looked great running down his face and arms, all over his shirt, and even puddled on his shoe. Alex got to ride home with his shirt off.


• Loosing count of the number of people who made a variety of comments on the theme of Gee, you must be busy!' The winner for most irony goes to the woman pulling a train of 2 year old triplets, who said that I must be busy. On the ride home I kept thinking what a bunch of tools these people were, and then it struck me, I probably actually AM busier than when I was in grad school. Of course, I was a total slacker student. :)