Behind the looking glass

Yesterday Wendy, Joy, and I went to the zoo along with Wendy's brother, sister in law and their 3 year old. It was an okay time.

We left the house around 8 am because the zoo did not open until 9. The drive down is not bad, from our map, it is basically down 64 west. We get to zoo about 9:30. Already I see a bunch of cars in the parking lot. I say that it looks crowded, but Wendy says it does not too bad. We park in the Africa lot because that is the part of the zoo that Wendy had heard it was best to start with.

After bathroom breaks, we make our way through the trails. Strollers were pushed uphill and then glided downhill. I have no idea how far we walked. I could not even tell you the animals we saw. Most of them had their butt to us.

Once we finished walking through Africa, it was time to come to North America. We stopped for lunch at the area between Africa and North America. It was crowded and we scrambled to find a table. Fortunately, we found one and it was somewhat out of the sun. Wendy's brother and I hunted down our lunch. We picked up chicken tenders for the ladies and guys had burgers. I had contemplated getting a salad and muffin, but the muffin was $3. So I thought no way. I was going to get a chicken sandwich, but one was not in the line. The moment I picked up my burger, the server came by and asked if anyone wanted a chicken sandwich. Oh well, the burger was cheaper. We eat our meal and get some ice cream cones.

Wendy's nephew wanted to see a Dora show. So they stand in line for an hour to see a 10 minute program. They said it was worth though. The line was in an open area and people, mainly small children, are expected to stand in it?

Wendy, Joy, and I venture off to part of North America to an exhibit we thought we missed in Africa. After visiting that, we came back and still wanted a few minutes for the family to get out of the show.

Then we take a tram to North America, to see the bears. By this time it is almost 4 and the zoo closes at 5. We walk around more and then it is time to go. We talk about taking the tram, but figure we will walk since the line was long. We make it back to the car and head home with our safari ended.

It did not rain on us, I was surprised. The kids hung in there. Joy only took a 20 minute nap while we waited for them to get out of the show. I was shocked there was so much to do. We were out all day and on the move. It was pretty good to see nature in a manufactured natural way.