Zoo

Things have been pretty busy for us lately--including a few (planned and unplanned) trips to San Antonio for the birth of Reese's cousin Claire. As a result, I've gotten behind on my blogging.

Several weeks ago we took Reese on her first trip to the zoo. Since Austin lacks a "true" zoo, we went to San Antonio to visit with the grandparents and see the "real thing" at the San Antonio Zoo.

I thought that going to the zoo during Fiesta would somehow equate to smaller crowds (thinking everyone would be doing Fiesta events, NOT the zoo), but I was definitely wrong. The zoo opens at 9AM and when we arrived at 9:30, there was no parking to be found. We had to park at Alamo Stadium and walk to the zoo. It wasn't a long or terrible walk (considering we had our umbrella stroller in tow), but it was just the beginning of the crowds.

Reese was excited about seeing the animals and didn't want to spend much time in her stroller. She would run from habitat to habitat to see the animals, and then get frustrated when she couldn't see over the fence for herself.

Reese's favorite exhibits were the sharks in the aquarium as well as the bears and monkeys. Due to cleaning schedules we didn't get to see the elephants (and we weren't going to wait half an hour to do so) or giraffes, but we hit most of the other major attractions. The only time Reese was scared was when we went in the butterfly house. She was terrified of all the butterflies flying near her and when one landed on Daddy she nearly climbed over his shoulder to get away. The trauma was short lived, though, since the monkey cages were nearby and offered a great distraction.


Overall, the trip was a success. We have Sea World in mind for sometime in the next few months, although we haven't worked out the details.