Past weekend's activities - zoo, airport, etc....

Friday:
Andy was on vacation and I took a day off. We thought to make it special so we took Ivan to the zoo. It was something we had been planning and looking forward to for a while.

We got to the zoo around 10 a.m. The day was already hot and humid. We parked in the zoo parking lot, chaching, chaching went $15 for parking, but it was money really well spent.

First on our tour was the Barnyard Animals -- a small barn-like recreation at the zoo. First we saw three alpacas. Ivan was really curious about them. They were big, furry and they moved. He leaned forward in his stroller and was all eyes for them. Then Andy's phone rang. A work phone call, which he had to take. Since we was taking a long time and since Ivan seemed interested in alpaca, I called work as well to close one pending issue I was supposed to finish that day. Yes, we are such work losers and the sad thing is our jobs don't even matter that much.

Then we proceeded to see some cows and sheep (or maybe there were goats). We went into a barn to check out two baby sheep (or goats).
It cracked me up to see that all these domestic animals had names: some were foreign, like a donkey named Guiseppe, some were old fashioned, like the goat (or sheep) named Ethel, some were just goofy, like you'd expect for an animal.

And that's where it happened. While we were in the barn looking at two baby sheep/goats (for whom I expressed more interested and wanting-to-cuddle-them ohs and ahs than Ivan), the fleet of mommies with strollers marched in and basically ambushed us.

We couldn't get out. It was a frigthening scene. All these mommies and their stoller offspring. I can't really pinpoint what was so scary about them, but something was. Turns out both Andy and I had the same reaction. "Run for the cover. Escape from the mommy-stroller hell."

We proceeded with the zoo expedition. Ivan soon lost interest in the animals. He was more intrigued by the people at the zoo. And it really wasn't people, so much as hordes of stroller mommies or kids belonging to various camp groups. He wanted to walk and then push his stroller and then be carried. He then insisted on reaching into my bag to find -- guess what -- his yo, yo yogurt! (What's so addictive about them?)

After the yogurt snack, we went to the reptile house. Andy's idea. He was go-ho about it. Ivan couldn't care less. It was hard to see all the non-moving snakes and lizzards tucked away in their little picture displays. I had a hard time differentiating the animal from the surrounding foliage. I'm sure none of the animals registered with Ivan. They were not fuzzy, big and moving.

We should've turned around and returned to the car, but instead we continued hiking up hill to find the elephants and the pandas. We found the elephants, including the baby elephant, who's now really a teenager. The pandas were hidden. We finally spied one sleeping in a grotto. It would've been a comical site had we been able to see it from all the people piled up in front of us.

After leaving the zoo, we drove up to downtown Silver Spring for lunch at Lebanese Taaverna. Much to my surprise, Ivan was scarfing down our food: rice, french fries, falafal and even salad!

We then attemped to get ice cream at Coldstone Creamery, but after waiting for more than 20 mintues, during which Ivan started crying, and behind helped by two kids who seemed impossibly slow and incompetent, we basically got pissed off, left the ice creams and just left. (One previous time we went there, I recall us having equally slow and annoying experience. And my threshold for such situations is very, very low.)

Then we proceeded to the airport to pick up my dad. I had suggested that Ivan and Andy should go home so Ivan could nap, but I guess I didn't suggest loudly enough. As we were approaching Dulles, my dad called that they had landed and that he should be out soon. So we decided not to park but just circle around. Then we went up to the Marriot to wait at the parking lot. To make a long story short, we waited for two hours before leaving. They couldn't open the airplane cargo to get people's bags. So everyone was stuck in immigration. Ivan, who hadn't slept the whole day, by this time was very cranky. On the way home, we got stuck in the horrible rush hour traffic. Both Andy and I were suddenly grateful that our work commutes don't require us to get on the beltway. Ivan eventually fell asleep in the car for a few minutes but woke up as we got home.

The day ended on a positive note. He ate some dinner, got bathed and went do sleep relatively easily.