Calvin had his first visit to the zoo today. Jaeger and I had been thinking of taking him for a while but our Sundays are so hectic it never seemed like a good time. So, I took this opportunity to recruit Grandma to go to the zoo with Calvin and I while Jaeger stayed home to do useful things and pack for his trip to San Diego.

We didn’t end up leaving the house till around 10am. On the way to the zoo Calvin took a nap. By the time we found parking at the zoo it was close to 11. This is normally Calvin’s lunch time but he had a big snack (his morning snack was the same time as our breakfast so he got goodies from our plate) so I figured we could probably delay feeding him lunch. We wandered around the zoo and Calvin had lots of fun watching everything, particularly the other children.

We wandered over to the rhinoceros exhibit and I put Calvin on top of my shoulders so he could watch the animal keepers attempt to heard the rhinoceros toward the scale they were trying to weigh him on. Calvin seemed to enjoy himself and clapped several times during the process. Next, we wandered by the the birds. Calvin didn’t seem particularly impressed by them but did enjoy wandering in/out of the bird house. I think it was the contrast between the bright outside and the dim inside.

We planned to go see the monkeys next but got sidetracked by the pachyderm inside exhibit. We saw George, the rhinoceros previously being weighed, but nothing else was inside. However, Calvin became entranced by the netted rope lining used to prevent children from getting too close to the exhibits. As we were getting ready to leave, we heard some loud banging on one of the elephant doors. Calvin thought this noise was the best thing ever. He started bouncing up and down and giggling. Then he’d run a couple of steps closer to the noise and bounce and giggle again. After a couple of minutes, some elephants came in and Calvin had fun examining them but seemed to become bored after determining they weren’t going to make any more noises.

On our way to the monkey exhibits we found a shaded bench so stopped and fed Calvin his lunch. Kitty-corner to our location was a brown bear exhibit with two very active bears. There was a large crowd of people around the bears so I couldn’t see everything well but based on comments I heard it sounded like the bears might be mating. By the time I could stand up and take a look, one bear was chasing the other with occasional swipes being made.

Calvin’s favorite exhibit was probably one that had some monkeys with very long tales and an anteater. Calvin would laugh every time the monkeys used their tales to do something like hang on to a branch.

For most our our visit Calvin either walked while holding onto my hand, I carried him in my arms, or he rode in the BOB stroller. We decided that Calvin needed a break when I set him down to walk and he collapsed on the ground and started crying. Once we put him in the stroller, he seemed fine. So, mom and I decided it was time for us to get lunch. We went to the main food building and got acceptable bean burritos. After we finished them, Calvin still seemed wiped so we decided it was time to leave the zoo.

Mom’s suitcase is starting to tear apart so we decided to go to the Colorado Mills outlets since there is a Samsonite outlet there. Calvin slept most of our way over there. Mom wasn’t inspired by the choices so we left without making any purchases. On our way out we passed a restaurant that was playing some music with a very pronounced beat. Calvin stopped walking and started bouncing up and down in time to the music. I guess that must be his version of dancing. After a couple of minutes he moved forward a few steps only to stop and start bouncing again. It was very amusing to watch.

We got back around home around 4:30, just in time for Jaeger to finish his lasts bits of laundry/packing. Jaeger and I went out to eat Sushi, which was very good, before he headed out to the airport. Jaeger flies into San Diego tonight and then will fly back home late tomorrow night.