April 7--The Montgomery Zoo Shenanigans

This past weekend was Zoo Weekend in Montgomery and Jake & I were there from 9-2 on Saturday!  It was better than I expected.  The last time I went to something like that was a Zoo Boo and was pushed and shoved and stood in long lines and said I would never go back.  This time, we hit it early and it was great!  If you've never been to the Montgomery Zoo, you are really missing something.  They have improved it SO much since I was a kid.  I remember how awful and small the cages were when I was a kid.  They continue to add new exhibits and features to the zoo every year and it HAS to be one of the best, now, in the entire South.  I would bet on it!  They just opened an actual PONY RIDE that is permanent with the most beautiful ponies that take you on a cute little trail, not just a circle.  They also let you feed the giraffes and I think you're supposed to get to feed the elephants, but we missed that one.  It was SUPER NEAT to get to feed and pet a giraffe.  They have also built a wonderful playground to stop and rest and even have a picnic if you choose.  And they are FINALLY taking advantage of that beautiful lake/pond, whatever you choose to call it, with PADDLE BOATS!  YES, that's right!  You can rent paddle boats for, in my opinion, a very reasonable price for 30 minutes.  One of the latest exhibits they are building, is a MUCH needed new habitat for the alligators (or alligator, as I only saw one this time).  Since I was a kid, the alligators have always been in that very small area and I'm sure they would be much happier in a larger area and it would be more interesting for us, too.  Perhaps they can put that GARGANTUAN Alligator Snapping Turtle in there w/ them if they are able to live together "peacefully" and/or each species hold their own.  In addition to ALL of this, (they should be paying me to write this) there is a museum that is pretty cool, in more ways than one, because it's air conditioned and very nice when it's hot outside!  So, I REALLY started writing this, not to commend the zoo on how wonderful it is....but it is...but to talk about the train and how my child wouldn't ride it this time.  I had asked him several times if he wanted to ride it before it got real busy and we had to wait in line.  Then later, we were crossing the tracks one time in the back and he tells me that was where they had an train accident when they were on a field trip to the zoo with the school.  I had forgotten about this because his father actually went with him on this one.  As he described the incident, it actually sounded like it was a pretty scary accident for a train full of 1st graders, as the train apparently was knocked off the tracks and at least part of it onto its side (now this is coming from a 7 year old).  It didn't occur to me on Saturday that this must have scared/traumatized him enough that he wouldn't want to ride the train again until this morning.  One of my co-workers was in a pretty bad accident this past weekend and it sounds like she was very lucky to have walked away from it.  She, of course though, is going to be scared/traumatized for a while at the thought of thinking she was about to die as she was about to hit an 18-wheeler (yes, she walked away from that).  It made me think about my son and the train and how he was scared to ride it this weekend and how he must be scared right now, only he didn't say it out loud.  I'm also wondering about all the other kids that were on the train that day, as it was full of 1st graders.  Are they ALL scared to ride it, now?  You  never know what is going to affect a child and how much it will affect them.  Something very little, TO YOU, may affect THEM, a LOT.  There are things from my childhood that stick out in my mind that affected me more than it probably should have, but it did.  It's just something to think about and even when your kids are very small, what we do WITH them and TO them and AROUND them really, really, REALLY affects them.