Trip to the Zoo

I realize most of you think I'm half crazy and you're probably at least half right! I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the zoo before the area schools let out for the summer. The forecast was supposed to be in the upper 80's with 50% or so humidity. Warm but compared to our weather lately, I thought it would be pretty nice.

Daddy went with us on the Metro instead of his usual Marc Train commute. The Marc just isn't practical for 3 little kids, a double stroller, cooler, etc so we got up really early and drove in very heavy traffic all the way down to the Metro.

The littles thought it was super cool to ride the train with Daddy. They thought they were going to work with him. We all got off at Cleveland Park so daddy could help us get ourselves off the train and to the elevator without losing anything or anyone. And I was on my own from there!

I didn't get a lot of pictures and many of the ones I did get didn't turn out so good. I needed a full time nanny to chase Shane because that chubby little 2 y/o is fast! So I focused more on keeping him in the stroller or holding my hand and not so much on pictures.

The forecast was wrong; it was hot. Because of that most of the animals were either hiding or just lying still. Not very exciting. We did see Mei Zhong eating her breakfast and watched her for some time. Tian Tian looked like he had been up too late the night before. He was sprawled out in his hut with paws over his eyes. I guess the crowd was too loud because he then rolled over away from us with his paws still over his eyes. Very cute.

I took a picnic lunch and snacks with us. Good thing because every 10 feet someone wanted to sit and have a snack. They ate more yesterday morning than they normally eat all day! We didn't have a specific agenda other than wanting to see the pandas and cheetahs (they were hiding) so we just wandered around and enjoyed (well, between chasing Shane who would laugh like he was crazy while running full speed away from me).

They really enjoyed Amazonia. Hank got to visit the Baltimore Aquarium last year so he was very excited to remember the word "aquarium" and then explain to Ella that the fish live behind the glass in water.

We went through the bird area and talked about which birds might live in our area and whether or not our yard would be a good habitat for other birds. They have a new area called the Kids Farm and you can pet donkeys (very friendly), cows and alpacas. They also have pigs and goats. Again the animals just lazed around. Though Hank noticed that the goats pooped on their playground and then layed down in it. Lovely.

They have this nifty thing for the the Orangutans (spelling???)...It's a series of high towers connected with ropes that go from their enclosure to another area so we watched a handful of them walk and swing on their ropes for a while. Very cool.

They also have misters at various places that mist cool water and you can walk through or stand there to cool off. At first, Little Miss wanted no part of them because they'd get her hair wet. By the end of the morning she was all for it though.

We started for the train around noon...and we were plenty tired by then. It was a fun way to spend the morning, but I think we'll wait until it's cooler to attempt a return visit.