Zoo day

We took Biscuit to the zoo a couple of Sundays ago. We've never taken him before, mainly because that place is so big, we just wanted him to be a little more independent. And I'm glad we waited. It was a good trip.

The zoo nearest us has two parts - North America and Africa. On the way there, I asked Jeff which side he'd like to start with because I didn't know how long Biscuit would last, and if there were certain animals Jeff and I wanted to see, I figured we should see them first. We agreed that we would go in at the Africa entrance because the elephants, rhinos and lions were the main attractions for us.

Plus, a friend of ours figured out the laziest way to see the zoo. And with a 2-year-old in tow, I was going to happily try out her method. She figured out that the middle of the zoo is the highest point. So as soon as you enter the zoo, take the trolley to the middle of the zoo, then walk downhill through one side. Then take the trolley back to the middle and walk downhill through the other side.

But our plans were doused when we got there. Because it's off season, the Africa entrance wasn't even open. All zoo traffic had to enter at North America, then you could take the trolley or walk all the way to Africa. So we headed into North America.

I looked at the map and realized that the seals and polar bears weren't far from the entrance, so we started walking. I figured we could just walk until we were tired, then we could pick up a trolley wherever we stopped.

We got to the seals first, and this was the first picture I took. See that face? I could've taken this picture of Biscuit all day long. This was the face he had at pretty much every exhibit.

The seals were really active. We watched them for a while in a cave-like area where you can see them swimming by. Biscuit called them dolphins at first. Actually, he argued with me saying they weren't seals. They were dolphins. I figure he has plenty of time to learn the difference between dolphins and seals, so I didn't argue with him. Plus, he was in a great mood, and I didn't want to jinx it with an argument.

Willie the polar bear was spending the afternoon relaxing on the rocks. He was lying still with his eyes closed when we got to him.

"WAKE UP, POLE BEAH!" Biscuit yelled. I think he thought the animals were there for his entertainment, much like the animated ones he sees on TV. And oddly enough, Willie decided to wake up and look around a bit right after Biscuit yelled at him.

We also saw a couple of black bears. One of them grabbed the trunk of a skinny little cedar tree and bent it all the way over. Then it just propped its front legs on the tree and relaxed. It was so funny.

"Beah funny, Daddy," Biscuit said. In the past few months, he's been learning a lot about emotions and how to tell them apart. The other black bear was just kind of skulking around. "Beah mad, Daddy?" Biscuit asked Jeff. Sometimes it's hard to answer those questions. If you ever pay close attention to people, they're often mad for no good reason (or for really stupid reasons), and when Biscuit asks, you have to try to explain it to him. Right now, changing the subject seems to work really well!

Anyway, we saw desert animals, including road runners, ocelots, some funky-looking lizards and some other birds. We also saw bison, elk and wolves.

After that, we got to a sign that said, "Congratulations. You've made it to the mid-point of the zoo." Then there was a sign that said "Africa" and had an arrow pointing straight ahead. We just kept walking from exhibit to exhibit and never caught the trolley. At that point, we figured we might as well just walk through Africa.

We got to the gorillas, and I said to Biscuit, "Look, Biscuit. Check out the gorillas."

Still in his argumentative mood, he said, "No, Mama. Not bogillas." Bogillas?!? I'm not sure where that even came from because he has the book "Good Night, Gorilla," that we've had to read 1,000 times.

We checked out the rhinos and ostriches. Then we got to the elephants. They have these cute little metal sculptures of the animals that kids can sit on. We got pictures of Biscuit on a praying mantis, a ladybug, a honey bee and this elephant. For some reason, he didn't take to the giant rhino sculpture, and the bison sculpture was too big to even get him up on.

All in all, we had a nice day. Biscuit has asked me a couple of times since that day to see the animal pictures. I can say for sure, that won't be our last trip to the zoo.