Tuesday (Part II)

After a full morning of fun at Balboa Park, the boys asked if we could go to the Zoo. I told them they would have to walk a lot, and asked if they still wanted to. They said yes, so we drove the block to the Zoo, where the parking lot was PACKED! I felt like maybe it was an omen that we shouldn't even try. We went up one last aisle, and I told the boys that if we found a spot in that aisle we would stay, but if we didn't, we would just go home. Not 2 seconds after I said that, there was an open space.



Not thinking that we would make it too long, I only brought the stroller and my camera.

Another omen that we should not have stayed, was that I didn't have the boys passes on me. So we waited at the membership window for a good 15-20 minutes.

Finally we were IN!

Isaac picked the Reptile House to go to first. We


made it through the first 2 sides of the crowded house, when I talked the boys into taking a side door to the outside tortises. We ventured a little down the hill, to the lesser viewed exhibits, and "found" some smaller reptile houses, that were totally empty! So I could get the huge stroller in there and read the plaques to the boys and we could stand nose to nose with the windows until we found the camoflouged little reptiles. I highly reccomend those little houses, instead of the over crowded big one!!

At the bottom of the tortise hill, there was a newer crocodile exhibit. When we got there, a trainer was actually in the exhibit, feeding a needle nosed croc and a huge turtle. It was pretty cool to watch, and he was yelling out commands, or something. The boys decided he was saying "Randy", and that was the croc's name. I think they decided "Walter" was the turtle's name.


Then we went to the Children's Zoo, where they have a new playground. Great idea, right? Except that the kids see that, and forget about all the animals! The boys played there for another half hour or so. I realized that the baby had a dirty diaper... and that I maybe should have brought my diaper bag. I had a diaper in my camera bag...and i could have used paper towels, but I figured I was surrounded by parents with diaper bags, so I would just ask someone for a wipe or two. Well, the closest mom to me with a

fairly large diaper bag, didn't have diaper wipes. Now I felt like a beggar, going down the line asking one person after the other... However, my fears subsided when the next parent I asked came to my rescue.

I changed the baby and we headed towards more animals, deeper in the Children's Zoo. We passed on the petting zoo, terrifying idea with 3 boys and 1 mom.

On our way out, one of the trainers brought out a Screech Owl and sat right by us on a bench. Isaac was hesitant to sit by the Ojo, but somehow we talked him into posing for a picture. I was surprised at how small Ojo was, but she is full grown.

So far we had stayed up on the top level of the Zoo, but the boys said they were still ready to walk more. So we headed through Moneky Trails and down Hippo Trails. The hippos were actually out of the water, and awake. After the hippos, we starte the steep climb back up through Tiger Trails. As we were entering, someone said that they had just seen the Tiger sitting by the glass, up close. Unfortunately, we were not able to see any of the tigers from any of the view points.

The boys were getting tired, but they were being so good about taking turns riding in the stroller and walking. There was no whining, and no fighting. The only fuss I got was when I said that we needed to go. But I'm glad that we did end on a good note :) I usually wait until someone melts down and we leave in a big sobbing heap!

Roman and Isaac pigged out on snacks when we got to the car, but they were all passed out by time we got home!!!