A Day at the Zoo

When you're single or married without children, you don't wake up on a Saturday and say "Let's go to the Zoo."  I don't know exactly why, you just don't.  It's not on your fun list like, say, shopping (for yourself) or backyard beer parties.  Suddenly with a child kid stuff is fun because you get to experience new things with your little one (LO).  You're like a tour guide of sorts.  Our LO is obsessed with dogs already, so with this in mind we trekked out to the LA Zoo this weekend to introduce her to more of the animal kingdom.

It turns out if you want to see animals, don't go to the LA Zoo.  When we got up to the ticket booth, there was a sign saying a bunch of exhibits were closed due to a water main break and construction so tickets would be half price.  Fine.  We did manage to see orangutans, a giraffe and some pig looking thing, to name a few.  But most of the animals looked rather sad and withdrawn hiding in whatever crevice or corner they could to avoid the people.  Maybe that's because they're single or married without children.  Or maybe it was because of the heat.  I'm convinced it's because they were full...of people food.  There are more food stands at this zoo than animals.  Every corner has a stand serving sugar in a different form.  At the meerkats, the candied almonds stand was jumping.  One grandma let her granddaughter throw her almonds to them.  A few indignant parents told her to stop but she didn't speak English - or at least pretended not to - and the meerkats had a feast.  Outside the Australia area, little ones were lining up for churros.  God only knows how many those wallabies had eaten and the koala looked downright bloated.  Sorry, mate!

The giraffes were a hit with LO and overall she had a great time.  It's not hard to please a 9 month old baby who would be just as excited seeing a pig looking thing as a herd of wild elephants.  As we drove home, I wondered what delicacy I could've bought outside the South America area if only it had been open.  Crepes?  Linzer torte?  Guess I'll have to come back again sometime and find out.