Vacation Day: A Visit to the Zoo
April 1st, 2006While I had anticipated a certain volume of children at the zoo, for some reason I thought going on a Thursday afternoon would keep their numbers down somewhat. There have been very few times in my life when I have been so wrong. Small children outnumbered adults five to one. In the mangled words of Jim Morrison “We had the guns but they had the numbers”. Faith pointed out that this wasn’t a situation where you had a family with one kid at the zoo – these people had litters of children. Like little armies. Their own little midget militias.
The poor teenage girl running the drink stand – she looked shellshocked, and for good reason. While standing in line waiting for my soda there were no fewer than three screaming children surrounding me. Two more and I would have had crying in full 5.1 Theater Sound.
But other than the droves of lollipop kids, it was a good trip. I got a good look at exactly how large a walrus is (really big), and enjoyed watching otters and seals play in the water. I also saw a pygmy hippo (bigger than it sounds), and a family of apes, and a lot of other great animals.
However, I still prefer Lincoln Park zoo. The layout of the grounds is much more navigable, they have a small lake with paddleboats you can rent, an underwater viewing area for the polar bear, and you can get much closer to the otters.
April 3rd, 2006 at 8:23 am
It probably didn’t help that you went on a week that had many schools out on spring break. But if you really want to be outnumbered, go during the summer.
April 3rd, 2006 at 8:30 am
Oh BTW.
Seals have flippers, otters do not. Otters have a long tail, seals do not. What’s the difference between seals and sea lions?! Sea lions have external ear flaps and can actually walk on land by turning their hind flippers inward. Seals just flop along like wet little break dancers.