prutopia

taking the train to the zoo

olivia and daddy had the day to themselves on saturday. and what a day it was. after a morning of gymboree music class and a nice loonnnggggggg nap, olivia got to ride the el for the first time. okay, technically, it wasn't the actual first time, but it was the first time when she was aware of it. so aware that she got freaked out when the train started moving and wanted to get back in her stroller. she calmed down, though, once she started paying attention to the sights passing by the windows. she was fascinated by the big buildings. much to daddy's chagrin, she barely acknowledged the existence of wrigley field.

so, liv and daddy rode the red line down to the fullerton stop. from there, it was a quick walk to the lincoln park zoo! okay, the walk wasn't that quick. in fact, the whole trip took over an hour, and i thought olivia was going to fade. at one point, she said, "livy tired". an admission she rarely makes. constant reminders of our destination got us through it. olivia knew where we were going, so her excitement level never waned.

when we first walked in, however, i was afraid that she was going to be very disappointed. why? well, no animals. no animals in the first section we toured. no bears (polar or otherwise), no warthogs, no penguins, nothing. okay, one animal, but i tend not include squirrels in my zoo animal count. fortunately for me, livy likes squirrels...

daddy was even more fortunate to discover that there were a few more animals besides the squirrels once we ventured deeper into the zoo. we saw some zebras, some camels, a couple of yak-like things, a gazelle/african deer type thing, and a few birds. but, by far, olivia liked the cats... the snow leopard (that's yeapawd in olivia speak) and the tiger.

we went back to visit the snow leopard twice.

the trip was a success! olivia had a great time. and to top it off, mommy came to pick us up. i don't know that we would have made it through the return trip, so than you, mommy. we'll probably make a return trip this summer when (hopefully) all the animals will be out... even the squirrels.

posted by pru @ 10:44 PM