First- it was HOT. I mean really hot. Like they issued a heat warning kind of hot. Did I mention it was hot? Hot in the sun, hot in the shade, the kind of hot that makes air conditioning almost ineffective...
But... we still managed to have a lot of fun! We arrived at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo around 9:30. We immediately headed off to the African Safari area... first things first, Zach and I rode this sky ride thing that took a nice up high view over the African safari area. Teagan was going to ride with Daddy but got scared at the last second and wouldn't go. Which was fine. It's a great zoo. The layout is great, the exhibits are beautiful. Lots of gorgeous flowers and water layouts. It was hot for the animals so there was a lot of laying around and sleeping going on. But the kids still had a great time.
The highlight was back in the Australia area. You can get really close to the kangaroos. Like... there is a path through the exhibit and a little rope thing to keep you on the path but there is nothing that keeps a kangaroo from hopping! Most of them were hanging out in a little shady area when I spied one hopping towards us from the other side of the exhibit. Teagan and I stopped to watch him hop- amazing to see those powerful leg and how they use their tail. Jeff had Zach in the stroller and was a bit ahead of us. Suddenly, the kangaroo decides to go join the group in the shade off to our left and bounds over the path- directly in front of Zach and Jeff!! It was awesome!! That gave us quite a little boost of energy!
My one complaint would be the food situation. The food is primarily Dairy Queen- lots of ice cream and a hot food menu. I had a salad with grilled chicken. Jeff had a BBQ sandwich and fries, Teagan and Zach each had applesauce and shared a grilled chicken sandwich. Not a bad lunch! But the area to sit and eat was a smallish screened in porch area with no fans. Ceiling fans would have made it a nice lunch... because did I mention that it was HOT? Best drink choice of the day was Gatorade. I would have loved more drink opportunities. I would have loved a cooler lunch menu- better salads, fruit, etc. Or a cool place to eat lunch. Heat and crowds often means run ins with rude people and there were certainly plenty of them out there. Thankfully, it was mostly just an irritant and I didn't have to throw down with anyone.
We didn't get to the last part of the Zoo- the American Farm. We have places where we can regularly be exposed to farm animals so we opted to go to Australia instead. We'd already spent half the day in Africa and Indonesia so we were pretty well traveled by that point.
After the Zoo, we headed down to Parkview Field to enjoy a Fort Wayne Tin Caps minor league baseball game. It is a great little stadium and I was surprised that there weren't more seats filled on a holiday-Monday afternoon. If our seats had been up a few rows higher, we would have been in the shade and would have lasted longer at the game. But we were about 5 rows back from home plate and in the beating down sun... I think I might have said that it was HOT, right? We were sweat machines!! We did enjoy the family meal deals- every Monday, they sell hot dogs, small sodas, and small bags of popcorn for $1 each!! I looooved my hot dog- mustard, a little ketchup, onions and jalapenos! You can imagine how eager Jeff was to give me a big old kiss!
Highlight of the game? When they turn on the music and have the "dance cam." People jump up from their seats and throw out all kinds of dance moves, hoping the camera person will think they are cute-funny-cool-hip-awkward and put them up on the jumbo tron. Well... we were on the big screen!! Zach was on Jeff's lap and Jeff started bopping Zach's little arms around to the music and suddenly- there we were!! I was the dorky one who stopped dancing so I could point at the screen. And Teagan is still insisting that since she chose not to dance, she wasn't up there. She almost gets offended if you mention seeing her on the big screen!!
Complaint? Aside from it being HOT... I took Teagan to a bathroom to get some cold water on her to cool her down. She was crazy sweating and her face was flushed from the heat. Stinkin' bathroom had those auto sensor faucets and only put out HOT water! GAH!!! I did find a different family bathroom later with an old school faucet and the kids and I enjoyed cold, wet paper towel baths.
After the game, back to the hotel to clean up (no pool- big disappoint for the kids and for us as we were really hoping to play and cool off in the pool before dinner).
We headed out to dinner at Granite City. We'd never been and it was YUMMY. Because the day had been so hot and tiring... I went for a Granite City Mojito and it hit the spot!! Jeff and I shared an Oriental Shrimp appetizer (spicy goodness). He had chicken parm, I had salmon with wild rice and asparagus. Teagan asked for a bite of my green beans and I shared... and then told her it was asparagus. Her response? "Ha! I didn't even know that I liked asparagus!" The kids had typical kid fare- mac n cheese, strawberries and cantaloupe, chicken strips.
Now we are back in the hotel... It's not even 9:00 and my entire family is sound asleep with my biggest baby snoring away on a bed behind me. We will have time to kill in the morning. My kids are early risers and nothing opens until 10. There is a great breakfast at the hotel... well, it sounds great any way. We'll find out tomorrow... and there is an IHOP down the street if needed... but no pool and hours to kill before we start the day. What to do?? There is a "sister hotel" down the street with a pool... but I don't know if it will be worth the effort.
Tomorrow's plan: Science Center, Art Museum, maybe the Firefighter Museum.
3 comments:
Sounds like you're off to a good start, minus a few misfires. My kids think it's fun to rent a movie in the hotel room. Maybe that would take up some time?
My kids run hot too, ALL THE TIME. I'm constantly bum-rushing them with water bottles when we're outside in the summer.
Thanks for the comment over at my place!
Sounds like you had a great time. How was the weather? Is it cool this time of year?
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