August 6 at the ZOO

Thursday:  Kaity was "out of sorts" today--that's a long story, and not one for this blog. We had not yet visited the zoo ALL summer due to the COVID restrictions: the "odd" way a person has to acquire tickets, the mask requirement, etc., the extreme HEAT we've experienced--all of those things made it less than desirable to visit the zoo.

But Thursday, the weather was in the upper 70's, no rain in sight, and I had seen the ads running to visit the zoo. I wanted to visit super much ... and I thought sure Kaity would want to do the same.

There are huge LEGO models of tons of wild animals. These models are all throughout the zoo and are very well done. I loved looking at them--except I only had a split second everywhere we went because Kaity was RUNNING from area to area in a very big hurry to leave so that she could go swimming over at Versluis. I had no idea Kaity would arrive at the zoo only to rush through in order to go swimming. But ... I was struggling (still am) with many heartbreaking issues this past week which have quite honestly made me physically sick. I just didn't have the strength to re-direct Kaity enough to slow her down and get her to enjoy our visit.

SO ... I tried very hard to keep up with her instead!

My main goal was to see the Meerkat exhibit, since it is brand new to the zoo this year ...

... as well as to visit the Red Panda exhibit to see if the newborn triplet girl pandas were available to see.

We ended up fast-walking 2.1 miles (according to my monitor) ...

I tried to enjoy what we were seeing. I tried to think of some way to get Kaity to just enjoy whatever time we were here ...

Sigh. I could not achieve that!

Since I knew Kaity didn't want to be there, it was difficult to enjoy being at the zoo. WHY on earth didn't I just turn around and go back to the car? I guess ... I didn't want to be "bossed around" by an 8-year-old--but more than that, I didn't want Kaity to think she could just dictate what it was we were going to do. I don't think it is good for children to "call the shots" and pout when they don't get their own way. 

The layout at the zoo has been much revised. I found that it required a lot more walking to get from one area to the next.

We finally made it to the Red Panda exhibit, only to find that Wasabi and Wyatt were sound asleep in their hammock, and NO babies were available for viewing. Bummer.

My favorite LEGO model was actually this boat (are you surprised?) ... 

Kaity DID consent to pose for some pictures--and she almost looks happy in them--but she was not a single bit happy.

I am old enough (finally) to not take responsibility for people's happiness or unhappiness (or at least I TRY not to take responsibility) ... so we just wandered through the zoo in a rather haphazard manner ...

We finally arrived at the Meerkat exhibit and found them to be very entertaining little critters.

Kaity crawled into the viewing tunnel and took a look around. I would have done the same, but getting INTO the viewing tunnel required an adult to actually crawl quite a distance to get to the bubble where you could stand up and look around. I am too old to do any crawling presently--my knees are killing me lately.

Kaity got to see this huge porcupine come out of his cave. For some reason, he lives in the same area as the Meetkats.

Meerkats are quite friendly and I found that they actually pose for pictures! Look at them!

This little fellow ran right over to the window and stood up and smiled at me--HE DID!

On our way out of the zoo, we had to walk past the monkey area. Kaity was FINALLY interested in stopping for more than one second--so I think we actually spend five minutes watching the monkey antics.

Kaity jumped and was able to reach the 6'6" mark on this cool piece of equipment.

Sigh. Our first (and probably only) trip to the zoo this year was a flop. Kaity couldn't wait to get to the car. First, though, she begged to go into the gift shop--even though I told her I had no money to purchase anything ... and then she moped about miserably when I stuck to my word about that. If you could see the hundreds of broken and badly-cared-for toys in her room, you might understand why I don't cater to buying Kaity every little thing her heart desires. 

If this post was depressing to read, I do apologize.