Since Taylor is a year now, we thought he would be ready for a trip to the zoo. I had high hopes that it would be a great experience. Unfortunately it didn't turn out quite as great as I hoped.
We originally planned to go Friday since we were both off work. But after a week of hard labor, Jason was exhausted and wanted to put it off till Saturday. So Saturday Taylor and Jason went to Little Gym while I went for a bike ride. Taylor had gotten up earlier than normal that day so he fell asleep on the drive to pick me up. We decided to just let him sleep in the car so Jason could stop by the chiropractor. Of course, he only slept for 1 1/2 hrs. By the time we got him home and fed, and me showered and ready, it was 2pm. We arrived at the zoo at 3pm and it was very busy. At first we tried to just keep him in the stroller, but there were just too many people that he couldn't see the animals through the crowd. So we took him out, and Jason held him up so he could see the hippos out of the water and eating. Perfect picture moment. Except, I FORGOT TO PUT THE BATTERY IN THE CAMERA!! I was so mad! I told myself so many times not to forget it on the charger, and I did exactly that. By this point my stomach was started to churn. (I'm lactose intolerant, and I presumed that my coffee from that morning had been made with milk instead of soy). We tried to make the most of it, but it was just a rough time, with me feeling sick and Taylor fighting every time we tried to stick him back in the stroller. A lot of the animals were sleeping, as well, so even if he could have spotted them off in the distance, when they are not moving it is hard to stay interested. At one point we just let him walk around picking up pine cones as that was the only thing that would make him happy. Lessons learned: go to the zoo in the morning, only go on a weekday, double check that the camera has the battery before leaving home, and ALWAYS make sure that my coffee was actually made with soy milk.
The day wasn't a total bust, however. We drove around a bit trying to get Taylor to fall asleep, but of course he didn't. So we grabbed some burritos and headed to Kerry Park. For those not from the Seattle area, it is a park that overlooks the Puget Sound and downtown Seattle. The Space needle is so close it feels like you can reach out and touch it. Taylor behaved as we ate dinner and enjoyed the nice view . We found another park down the road that overlooked all of Puget Sound, so we got Taylor out and let him walk around and watch the ferries coming in and out. If we could have stay another hour, we probably would have seen an amazing sunset, but it was time to get Taylor home.
On the drive home, we passed the back end of the Seafair Torchlight parade. People were hanging out on the floats waiting to hit the parade route. In all my years growing up in Seattle, that was the closest I've ever gotten to going to the parade. It was kind of fun to drive by all the floats and marching bands. We went home and watched it on TV instead. It brought back memories from the day I got my appendix removed. Everyone was sitting in my hospital room watching the parade as I drifted in and out of consciousness, catching a glimpse here and there.
So, that was our afternoon at the zoo. Hopefully next time will be better, and I will remember the battery to the camera so I have some picts to share.
