25 years is a long time between zoo visits. I bought my daughter a pass for Christmas last year. Our oldest grandson had just turned 2 and baby number 2 was due any day. She had a whole year off work with lots of visits planned and my daughter likes to plan.

Wham, Covoid 19 hits. Zoo is closed, no one knows what is going to happen, or when. We all start hibernating like the bears. Stay safe is everyone’s mantra and “love you” is our sign off whether talking, emailing, texting or whatsapping. Zoom is the new party channel. Life is stressful but we are fortunate and adapting.

Thankfully the good weather comes, lots of fresh air and things are starting to open up including the zoo, Rachel finds out that the zoo is doing drive thru visits. Online she goes and books her ticket, off the family goes. She said it was quite remarkable, lots of animals and took about an hour.

This was her 3rd visit and I was invited. I was so excited. Should I take my camera, yes, no – too much stuff to carry. I get up in the morning and grab my camera, seriously I wasn’t going to take my camera. Get up to Rachel’s and the car looks like we are going away for a week. I am now bursting with excitement. 🙂

Once again you have to buy tickets ahead of time and we had the 9:30 time slot, a great time to go. Lots of families arriving in the parking lots. Masks on for going through the ticket booth and then not needed unless you are going in a pavilion or through a tunnel, It was a beautiful bright sunny day.

Right at the front door is a big carousel, too much fun and today it is working, it wasn’t the first time the kids went. Well you can imagine the excitement for the toddlers, wow. I want to go on the carousel says every child going through the gate. After we see the animals says the moms. So off we head to the rhinos.

Honestly, Africa is back on my bucket list, these animals are just amazing. I grab my camera and start taking pictures. Oops, not much battery, better be careful. I continue taking pictures and BIG OOPS, none of my memory cards are in my camera. Seriously!!!!!. Thank goodness for cell phones, the visit was still going to be documented.

Finally to Ethan’s delight we are back at the carousel.  Rachel needs no prompting to hop on with him.  It was quite entertaining and I felt for a few of the moms and grandma’s as the tried to explain to their toddler that they had to come off, or they couldn’t have the animal they wanted.  Only certain animals were open and they were cleaned after every ride.  Needless to say you can’t do just one ride, and thankfully after the 2nd one Ethan was happy to leave.  And 10 minutes into the car ride, sound asleep no matter how hard we tried to keep him awake.  LOL.  Thanks kids for a wonderful day.