Day 2... Put me in the zoo...

Today I was ambitious. I took Abby, Isaac and Brady and Abby's friend Bridget to the Oakland Zoo. By myself. *cue oohs and aahs* Me, completely alone with a herd of wild animals....

But seriously, it went just fine. The kids were all very well-behaved. Brady was mind-blowingly tolerant of being confined to the stroller for most of the day (because let's get real: there was no flippin' way I was going to loose him with Isaac along for the ride). Abby and Bridget were tolerant of Isaac. And best of all, there were no real meltdowns. Nothing even close to a meltdown, in fact.

We picked up Bridget at 10, and headed west, arriving at the zoo in good time. We saw flamingoes, a pair of sleeping tigers (one of whom was named Molly, which called to mind fond thoughts of Logan's love of the same name from CHO), elephants, giraffes, frogs, lizards, snakes (blech!), monkeys, chimps, and more. The usual zoo crew. Most interesting tidbits? There are a few.

Abby was very (very) unamused when the chimps got excited for a few seconds. Oh, the whooping and hollering. I tried to tell her that it's how I feel when she and her siblings whoop and holler and act like monkeys, but she didn't buy it.

Abby was surprisingly interested in the alligators. I have no idea why. She'd never before expressed an iota of interest in alligators.

There was a tiny baby squirrel monkey riding around on its mommy's back. According to the guide standing there to keep people quiet (and he had his work cut out for him with Mr. High Volume Isaac himself present), it was the mom's first time out with her babe. The zoo people were very excited.

We had lunch at the cafe on-site. I was shocked when the kids' meals all included two two-packs of fairly sizable chocolate chip cookies. Bonga! Then there were more lions, tigers, bears... oh my.

All told, we were inside the gates for about four hours. I hope all of the kids had a good time. I'd do it again. A quick but heartfelt thank you to the parents from Logan's preschool class for the zoo membership. Here're a few more photos.