Finding Joy: A day at the zoo

Sunday, March 21, 2010

A day at the zoo

Dan and I took the girls to the North Carolina Zoo on Saturday! I've been wanting to go for a while and thought it would be a good idea to make our trek before temps get too high.....hot NC summers, pregnant woman and 4 miles of mostly up hill zoo walking don't mix. The weather was beautiful on Saturday although it did get up to 83 which turned out to be pretty warm with no leaves on the trees to provide any shade. I think that everyone in North Carolina had the same idea as us because it was seriously SO crowded......we had to wait in line to use the bathroom! What we learned at the zoo is that our girls are a bit too young to really enjoy the whole experience. Not only is it an hour and a half drive, but Charlotte is still too young to not have a nap which was a lot of fun come 1:00. Maddie would have done well staying at the zoo all day, but she wasn't really all that interested in the animals, and honestly I don't blame her. The amazing thing about the NC Zoo is that the habitats are HUGE! The animals have so much room to roam, but it makes it really hard to get a good look at anything unless the animals are right next to the edge of their space. Baboons are fun to watch, but pretty difficult to keep a toddlers attention when they are 100 feet away. Good for the animals, not so good for young-ins. All in all it was a fun day. We had a picnic lunch and ended our afternoon on the merry go round. Maybe in a year from now Maddie and Charlotte will have a better time at the zoo....although by then, we'll have a 6 month old to throw a different kind of stick in our wheels. Oy vey!

Our first stop, giraffes