Zoo Lights

Last Sunday night we took our annual trip to see the Christmas lights at the zoo. We usually don't go this close to Christmas, but it's been so cold and we've all been sick since Thanksgiving. It was in the 50's last Sunday night so we figured it would probably be the warmest day to go, plus Jason was on his day off so we wouldn't have to rush out of there. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. Even though it was a Sunday and people had work and school the next day. And it was raining.

I've never seen the zoo parking lot so crowded. Ever. Seriously.

Of course Xander doesn't ever care about the lights, he's fixated on the animals, so he was ticked off as soon as we got there because it was too dark to see most of them. He wouldn't let us take his picture. But Jordis happily obliged.

We were going to go see the trains when we discovered that they had moved the train display. It used to be in one big room, all in one area, so you could get in line and walk by the whole thing. This year it's in a building half the size and split into sections. There was no room for wagons or strollers. Once you got up to a display you couldn't get out because of the people milling around. Can you say fire hazard? So we saw one or two sections before we couldn't take it anymore and tried to get out. Even that was an adventure and Jason almost had to get rude with these women who were standing in the exit chatting and drinking coffee.



After this incident, along with a few others on our walk to the petting zoo, I turned into my dad and came up with the following list:

Things-Not-To-Do-When-You-Go-To-The-Zoo-and-Can-Tell-Before-You-Get-Out-of-the-Car-That-It's-Extremely-Crowded
1. Don't let your 1-year-old who appears to have just learned how to walk try to do so. This is not the time or the place.
2. Don't let your pre-K'er, who isn't as tall as the stroller handle, push your toddler around the zoo, in the dark, in a stroller.
3. Don't walk 5 and 6 people across, so that you take up the whole path, and then stare at people coming the other way like they're in your way as they try to squeeze by you.
4. Don't walk in the middle if you are slow. I don't care what the reason is....you're browsing, old, handicapped, injured, whatever. It should be like the freeway....if you are slow, for ANY reason, whether out of your control or by choice, stay to the right.

Oddly enough (and I can't believe I'm going to admit to this - since I thought it was weird when my dad said it at the mall back when I was in high school), things would go much more smoothly if people treated public areas like the freeway, but on foot. Stay to the right if you're meandering, leave the left for those in a hurry or people needing to pass. Turn off when you get to where you need to go.

But alas, people don't think that way. We did eventually make it to the petting zoo after jumping out of the way of a few people and trying not to run over a few others (old, slow, in the middle).


Was too muddy to get to the reindeer and the kids were whining about this and that, so we left. It was an easy choice since we have a membership and can go back whenever we want. I think next time we'll go on the coldest day of the year if it means we can avoid the crazies.