Penguin March

Last night was Nathan's last night shift. It's wonderful that he now has a week off, but he still needed time to sleep today to get back to a regular schedule. I decided to take Allison to the zoo to get us out of the house. I typically avoid the zoo on Saturdays because it's so much busy than the week, and I also avoid days with hyped activities, like today's Penguin March (a few penguins walk around the outside of the exhibit). We got to the zoo when it opened and it was busy but not too crazy. There was a large crowd who had participated in the Gorilla Run (a 5K race around the zoo) outside the main gate but it was okay...until the gatekeeper told me that the hundreds of people who ran the race were given free passes for the zoo that day. Suddenly, the zoo erupted with people. It was so busy! I've never seen it so packed.

We saw the Penguin March but Allison isn't interested in animals so we didn't stay for the talk. We went on all the rides, played on the playground, fed the goats, but didn't spend any time looking at animals. I was only able to get the few pictures I did because we were on the Sky Safari or the boat and Allison couldn't run away from me.

 

 

One interesting part of the day was when we were on the tram to leave Africa and go back to the main part of the zoo. As we were sitting, I heard a woman suddenly shrieking for her child. Suddenly the family fanned out and everyone was looking for the kid. I always get goosebumps because I know how scary life is in the moment. We were about to pull away when I moved my bag and tapped the boy beside me. I said something to his mom who said, "Oh, he's not mine." I got the ticket takers attention and got him to hold the ride when I yelled to one of the people looking for the kid if they were looking for a blond boy. They said yes and his mother ran over, sobbing, and got her young toddler off the tram. He had wandered away while they were in the store and had joined the mob getting on the tram. He was totally calm and looking out at the landscape when I moved in beside him. I felt so bad for his mother, she was a wreck.

After our exhausting 5 hour trip to the zoo today, I put Allison down for a nap and I tried to get a quick nap in too, but I was too wired from the thoughts of having your child taken. I'm glad it had a happy ending.