Photos from Day 3

Zander and I woke up together this morning – and I suddenly noticed that he wasn’t sucking his thumb. And I thought for a bit, and realized it had been a long time since I saw him sucking his thumb. Holy cow! He has stopped sucking his thumb!

I smiled, and said, “Wow, you stopped sucking your thumb, didn’t you?” He nodded.

I gushed about how proud I was of him doing it all on his own, and about what an amazing kid he is. He beamed.

We both got up and got dressed while Zevan and Doug slept. I suggested that he and I go grab breakfast. His reply? “That sounds good, but Dad and Zevan might worry about us and wonder where we are.”

I told him it would be okay. In fact, Doug stirred and asked us what was going on right before we left, so we told him our plan. I grabbed our swim suits and we walked down to the laundry room to throw them in the dryer (they were still wet from swimming last night).

Zander and I had a nice breakfast together in the continental breakfast room. We made waffles Then I stopped by the lobby to get information about going to the beach this morning. And we got the swim suits out of the dryer.

After breakfast, we came back to the room. Doug was on his laptop, and Zevan “scared” us when we opened the door.

I got Zevan dressed and asked him and Doug what they wanted for breakfast. I went down and grabbed food for them (waffle and boiled egg for Zevan, toasted bagel with cream cheese for Doug). While they ate, I packed a beach bag, a bag with a change of clothes and a bag for the zoo later.

After they ate, we put on swim suits and headed out to Mission Beach. It was a nice short drive, and we were able to park and walk right onto the beach. No beach tags required.

The boys got right into the water. Zander said to me, “This is awesome, isn’t it, Mom?”

They really enjoyed the surf and waves. As well as playing in the sand. We took pictures and video. It was really nice.

Afterwards, we went up to rinse off in the showers. Zander wanted to change into his dry clothes, so we took him to the car to do that, and the rest of us stayed in our swimsuits and got lunch. I got a steak sandwich and cheese whiz fries. Doug got a calzone, and the boys each got a HUMONGOUS slice of pizza. Easily over twice the size of a Poor Richard’s slice. Craziness. We ate outside. It was a nice day.

After lunch, we drove back to the hotel. The boys wanted to rest a bit. Doug and I both showered and changed. Zevan just changed. The ZBoys laid down for maybe 5 minutes. Then they were unable to nap or snuggle. Doug and I laid down for maybe 15 minutes. We would have rested longer, but the kids were antsy, so we just decided to head out to the zoo.

We were able to find a free parking spot close to the entrance – score! We took the requisite photo in front of the San Diego Zoo sign of the boys, and then went in. Zander really wanted to take the bus tour (included in our 3 for 1 pass), but the line was long, so we decided to head over to the reptile house first. That was fun – we were able to spot the reptile in each exhibit but one (and it was iffy that there was something actually in that one).

After the reptile house, we took the sky ride over to the Polar Bear Plunge. We checked out the pigs exhibits along the way. The first viewing area was a snore – there was one polar bear, asleep, on top of the rocks. When we got to the 2nd display area, there was a polar bear in the water, playing with a ball. We watched him for a while, and then went outside so the boys could climb on the silver polar bear statues. As we left, there was a big commotion at the first viewing area, apparently the sleeping bear need to take a dip. Zevan asked, “Mom, is that the same bear that was on the rock?”

We then headed down in the direction of the panda bears. We went by the zebras, then birds of prey, past the entrance of the Ituri Forest down to Panda Reserach Center. The line was long, but moving quickly, so we got in line. Well, Doug and Zander got in line, and Zevan and I went to get us ice cream to eat while we were in line. I was able to get a cup of swirl soft serve with two cones, so that made things easy for us. The pandas are just such cool animals to look at. The dad, Gua Gua was fairly active and had a dirty butt. In the 2nd enclosure, we saw the mom sitting around, and the baby was conked out wrapped around a branch in a tree. So cute!

We headed back to the Ituri Forest. We saw tons of animals – hippos, okapis, guenons, turacos and more. And of course, I *had* to see the tigers. We did get to see the mom pacing back and forth at the top of their enclosure. The best part was that we got to see the cutest baby tiger cub, romping around a bit closer to us, and then back up by his mom.

While viewing the animals near the aviary, Zander suddenly announced that he had to go to the bathroom immediately. We, of course, were no where near a bathroom. We rushed through several exhibits, got to the tree house and finally got to the bathroom. Zander went with his dad, and Zevan came with me. And he had to poop. Of course. So I stood in a cramped stall while he went to the bathroom. In the handicapped stall next to us, I heard another mom with her young child also on the toilet. I over heard him asking for something and she told him that she left them in her purse (not with her). So from under our stall, I asked, “Do you need flushable wipes?” and stuck them under neath the wall. Her son was delighted and she sounded relieved and appreciative. Her son struck up a conversation with us. I found out that he was also 4 years old, and had had a Speed Racer birthday party, and lived in California. They finished before we did, so we never did see each other.

Zander came in to check on us. I told him that Zevan wasn’t ready yet, and Zander left to report to Dad.

FINALLY Zevan finished up and we got out of there and back to looking at animals.

We continued through the Itrui Forest for a good long time. I think we got turned around quite a bit. I really wanted to see the gorillas. And it felt like we kept going around wherever they were. We did see lots more animals – like pygmy hippos and alligators, and lots of different monkeys, carnivorous plants and birds. We did finally find the Gorilla Tropics, and were worried that we saw no gorillas in the first few viewing areas. Then we finally did see them – the whole troop. It was really fun and amazing to watch. We also saw the orangutans and a few more simians.

We headed out of the Ituri Forest, towards the zoo exit, which was near the bus tour station. As we were figuring out if we should go, Zander said he changed his mind and didn’t want to take the bus tour. Then, of course, Zevan said that he really wanted to go on the bus tour. So, I bought two bags of chips and we headed over to the bus tour line. Which was actually pretty short. We missed the first loading, but got right on the second one. It was a nice tour of the park – quick and covered a lot of ground. It also showed us that we basically missed about 2/3 of the zoo. So we did get a quick peek at the Cats and Dogs, the elephants, giraffes, koalas and wallabies, and so much more.

After that we hit the gift shop and headed out to the car. We drove directly into downtown to get dinner at The Fish Market. By the time we got there it was late. I dropped Doug off at the door to get us on the list. The boys and I drove around looking/waiting for a parking spot. It didn’t take as long as it did when we went to Little Italy, but it was still a pain. We walked over to the restaurant where Doug was waiting for us. The wait was going to be fairly long. So we had a potty break, then I grabbed some kid activity books and crayons from the hostess station. We worked on those a while. finally, they took us to our table. Which was outside on the terrace. Doug and I never got seated out there – it was pretty cool! But then it turned out that the heater over our table was broken. And then Zander insisted it was too cold for him and he couldn’t stay out there to eat.

Doug, Zevan and I were crestfallen. But there was no talking him out of it, so they said they would give us the first available table inside, and hopefully it wouldn’t be too long. Zander kept complaining, so Doug took him inside. Zevan and I continued to wait outside. When the waitress finally got us for our table inside, Zevan totally fell apart. He started crying and saying he wanted to eat outside. I didn’t know what to say, I wanted to eat outside, too. So I brought him inside. He was inconsolable. The hostess brought over chocolate, and that didn’t appease him. I think it was just too much – he was tired, it was late. I was beyond frustrated with Zander – he was the only one who wanted to come inside, and he got his way. I wished that he could have just stuck it out and took one for the team, but that’s just not a concept for 5 year olds. Oh well.

Zevan never recovered. When the food arrived, he was sad and having trouble keeping his eyes open. He took one bite of rice and none of his snapper. He put his head on the table and promptly fell asleep. Zander took like 5 bites of his food and announced he was tired and wanted to go home.

Doug and I exchanged “the look.” And we ate quickly while I told Zander that we understood that he was tired and wanted to go. And not to mention it anymore. At all. In fact, it would be best if he just waited quietly. I finished eating, and took the boys to the car while Doug took care of the check. Again, Zander tried to complain, and I just said that was enough and not to talk about it anymore. I was brusque and curt as we got into the car.

I know I expected too much from them so late. It’s just so hard when it is always about the kids and never gets to be about what Doug and I would like to do.

We picked Doug up and headed back to the motel.

And here we are. Everyone else is asleep but me. I’m going to do a bit more pre-packing now, and then go to bed.