San Diego Zoo

My dad tried to convince me that it wasn't worthwhile to take William to the zoo while he's still so young. "He won't remember it," he pointed out. "Why not wait to take him when he's older?"

True. We'll have to tell him about this zoo trip when he's older. But William still seemed to enjoy himself at the San Diego Zoo last Saturda. How do we know he was having fun? Well, at first, he just sat in his stroller and leaned forward, taking it all in with huge wide eyes. Then he loosened up. He pointed to animals and said, "Ba!" That's how you know William's feeling pretty happy.

And we were far from among the only parents with a child his age. In fact, it seemed like we looked like nearly every other family there! Mom with stroller and camera, check. Dad with baby, check. Bag of souvenirs, hanging from stroller handle, check. Isn't it funny how I never noticed all these families before I became a mother, and suddenly they're everywhere. It's similar to the phenomenon when you buy, say, a blue sedan, and suddenly everywhere you go, you spot other people driving the same blue sedan.

David or I carried William through several exhibits so he could get a better look at the animals. William got to see the orangutans, including one who was posing just on the other side of the glass, and he got to check out the pandas, lazing around in their yard. And yes, he pointed to the panda and said "Ba." We will assume that he meant "bear." And you know what? I think he really was interested in the bear. Maybe because it was such a distinctive black and white, set in relief against the green of the grass and trees? Maybe because he recognized the panda from some of his books? I don't know. It doesn't really matter. It was still fun. And I picked up a few panda souvenirs for us in the nearby gift shop (sucker that I am, yes), and then we moved on to the zebra exhibit.

Here we are in front of the Sun Bear Canyon sign:














Sadly, the polar bears weren't much of a show. David has always loved polar bears, so we wanted to make sure we saw them. I was hoping that we'd get to see one twisting through the water so we could spy on him from below the tank. We pointed out one lone polar bear, sunning himself on a high rock, but I don't think William was especially interested. As the sun crept up in the sky and the crowds of tourists thickened, William began getting a little grumpy. By the time we huffed and puffed our way to the hippo exhibit, the little prince had fallen asleep in his stroller. David got quite the workout, pushing the stroller back around the tiger exhibit, through the monkey area, and back to the entrance. (Was the SD Zoo always that hilly? Who needs to go to the gym when you can push a fully loaded Peg Perego around the zoo?)

We ended up only staying the zoo for about three hours. Which is just about the right amount of time when you have a baby with you. We did skip some exhibits, and I decided I was too scared to take William on the Skyfari ride, high above the park, so we headed out. I felt bad for the families who forked over big bucks to take their whole families to the zoo for the day, though: in order to get your money's worth, you really have to stay all day, and the prospect of that makes me feel tired even now. We'd have been dead if we'd tried that. Grandaddy Dudley once said, after a long day at DisneyWorld about 20 years ago, that he'd walked so much that "my feet are worn off to my knees!" Exactly.

David wanted to go eat lunch on Coronado, so we decided to eat at this seafood place on the bay.

It was a nice place. Here's a photo of William and David pointing to the lights and saying "Ba."















The food was good, but I don't think we endeared ourselves to the waitress or the nearby diners. William was in a good mood, so he banged his hands on the table and called and screeched and talked. I rapidly tore off pieces of a roll and stuffed them into his mouth as fast as I could to keep him quiet, but it only marginally worked. David took over feeding duty, and I pulled out some cheese, which of course, William can't resist. But we couldn't seem to feed him enough to keep him from being extremely loud. And...you knew this was coming...then when he finally had a full belly, he began to groan and grunt and turn red. And in true William style, he put on the full show. At full volume. At this point what could we really do? So David and I just giggled. I felt sort of bad for the people sitting near us, but I finally decided that they could have asked to be moved to another table. The restaurant wasn't even half full, it was long after the busy lunch rush, and there were other tables with kids, some of whom weren't exactly silent, either. So our child was a little rowdy. It wasn't like it was evening. Big deal. David and I enjoyed our chocolate lava cake, and then we waddled to the car.