Winter Play Dates: The Zoo

We have had such nice weather this past week with temps being in the mid 50's!  What? Is it really February?

During the off season, the zoo offers "Free Wednesdays" on the last Wednesday of the month.  February is the last month this is offered.  With it being such nice weather lately, our play group thought it was a good idea to go to the zoo on this day!...

It was definitely NOT a good idea haha

We got there a little after 11 and as I was pulling onto the street the zoo is on, I was seeing people parking blocks and blocks away, hiking up the hill to the zoo with their kids and strollers. 

I almost turned around right then...

if it weren't for the others I was meeting there, I probably would have.

It took us 20 minutes to park!  We had to hunt people down that looked like they were leaving and follow them to their car in order to get a spot!

We finally got into the zoo at about 11:30 and it was just that....

a ZOO! 

And I don't do well with crowds...

We spent like 2.5 hours there and didn't even get to see everything.  By the time we had had enough it was so blasted crowded that you couldn't hardly maneuver.  I just wanted to get out of there!

Not to mention James was kind of a pill the whole time and would throw little fits here and there and he wouldn't listen to me and kept wandering off.  I'm surprised I never lost him.  By the end of the trip, he was wanting me to hold him so there I was holding my almost 3 year old and trying to push the baby in the stroller to get out of the park, up-hill mind you.  I guess one positive is that I got my work out in for the day!  At least Stockton did great! It could have been worse, I could have had both kids throwing fits :)

So I would say that was probably not one of my favorite outings.  Sometimes we as a society are so cheap! I guess me included ha.  Really, sometimes it is not worth the chaos and stress for free admission!  Next time I will gladly pay to go on a regular day with less crowds, thank you.

The Carousel was the only good part because....you guessed it! It wasn't free so there wasn't a crowd! cheap cheap cheap

This is Stockton's face lately almost every time we take a picture

I wanted to punch every single one of these people in the head...I kid, I kid (sort of)