The Zoo

Paul and I wanted to do something fun this past weekend, so we decided that we would take Bree to the zoo. Since Sunday was the only day out of the weekend that wouldn't be cold or cloudy, we headed to Riverbanks Zoo that morning. I think that I may have been more excited than Bree was, but Bree kept asking in her favored phrase, "What we doin?". I am sure I repeated "The zoo" 10 million times during the hour and a half drive, and when we finally rolled into the parking lot I was glad.

As I pulled Bree from her car seat, I discovered that her blue jeans were completely soaked through. For some reason the Pampers decided to give out, and all of the Apple Juice she had devoured that morning was now in her blue jeans and car seat. Thank God I brought an extra change of clothes. Paul got the stroller out of the trunk as I changed Bree's diaper, and jeans, and soon we were ready to see the animals! We didn't even have to wait in line to get our tickets. We more or less walked right in.

We started out with the boring stuff first. We looked at the birds, reptiles, and fish in the aquarium. I don't think that Bree found any of this fascinating, except for the penguins. You could see them swimming underwater through the glass wall. It was very cool. After we left the aquarium, we headed for the elephants which you could smell before you even got to them. It's a bad smell. We also saw giraffes, alligators, zebras, and ostriches before we decided to eat.


Food at the zoo always costs more than a monthly mortgage, and tastes worse than a crap sandwich, but when you're hungry and have been walking around in the sun for two hours...anything will do. You wouldn't believe the rudeness of people though. Not just in the food court, but around the entire zoo. They all had the "Me-First" attitude, and didn't care that they were hogging the view of the giraffes, or the ape. And, if by some chance, I was able to get a good view...I was more or less booted from my position. By the end of the day I was just running over people with the stroller. My patience, and generosity had been lost somewhere in the area of the Baboons.

We spent about four hours at the zoo, and I know that Bree had a great time. We hadn't even gotten on the interstate before she was passed out in the back seat and slept all the way home! I was glad that we were able to take her to the zoo, because even if she wasn't able to grasp the concept of the different animals, she was happy to be doing with something her Mommy and Daddy. That is worth a million dollars to a child. I know, because I remember.