San Francisco Zoo

This weekend past, after weeks of endless rain, we finally had nice weather. I suppose I shouldn't complain, since we needed the water so badly. But those of you with young kids know as well as I do that life isn't pleasant with a toddler that is stuck indoors for days at a time. Lily loves to be active and outside running around.

And so, when we woke on Saturday to sunny, cloudless skies and reports of temperatures getting into the upper sixties, we packed up the car and went into San Francisco. Having been here for four years, its horrible that I've never been to the zoo. Especially considering that it is right next to a gorgeous stretch of beach that's perfect for surfing. But this weekend we made it out there. And the expression on Lily's face when she saw the giant girafe at the front gate made the entire trip worth it. She loved the exhibits. She loved the animals. And most especially, she loved the petting zoo. We had to literally pry her away from the duck pond.

For lunch, we got her a kid's meal at the cafe and it came in this adorable little tiger lunch pail. She totally dug it. She has a thing with purses, and kept grabbing it and saying "bye-bye" as she walked around. (Her toy purse at home plays music when she opens it. The end of the song says "wave and say bye-bye...I won't be gone too long".)

The polar bears were cool, although I kind of felt bad for them. The exhibit was all cement. I suppose polar bears live on ice, so maybe it doesn't matter, but you'd think they'd at least have a patch of grass. But I suppose since the SF Zoo only has animals that couldn't survive in the wild, it isn't as inhumane as I tend to think zoos are. At least, that's how I justified it to myself.

The goats and sheep in the petting zoo were fun. When we happened upon a group of sheep, they started "baa"-ing. Lily was delighted.

My favorite exhibits were the lions and tigers.



Lily got a kick out of seeing the lions eating. She kept pointing and saying "eat", to which I would reply, "Yes baby. They're eating." Then she would say "yum" and rub her hand over her belly.

There is supposedly a new baby gorilla, but we didn't get to see him. The papa gorilla was pretty territorial of the "nest" and didn't let anyone in or out while we were there.

Lily was afraid of the lion statue and would only go near it if I was holding her. And yet, I was still a mean mommy and made her sit on it for a photo op.

As we were getting ready to leave, we found this carousel. At first we weren't going to ride because we didn't have any cash for tokens. But Lily was so despondent that Ernie ran back to the cafe to get some cash. What a good daddy.