Fifteen minutes after I wrote up the Where the heck is my mom?! blog entry, my mom showed up. She left late (of course), then had to stop for gas, and got stuck behind some slow as molasses, lost tourist (poor guy was really lost to have been down our way!) all the way to our house. But it wasn’t too bad. It gave Alyssa time to eat a quick snack (she was too excited for breakfast, lol) and me time to write up a review on Shutterfly note cards.
So we left the house by 10am, after running back to grab Alyssa’s hair bow and sunglasses. We stopped at McDonalds (Dan and Alyssa) and Arby’s (me) for “breakfast”, and then hit 30, jumped onto 202, and finally made it over to 76. Even with sitting in traffic that slowed to a crawl for the last four tenths of a mile to the Girard Ave./Philadelphia zoo exit, we got down there by 11:30am. Finding parking was a bitch, and we wound up parking in Fairmount park and walking three or so blocks to the zoo. But we were in and waiting in the fifteen minute line for the bathroom by a little after 12.
The zoo was FUN. I’m glad we went when we did, because even though the temps were “only” in the mid 70′s or so, it was HOT. And very bright, and very sunny. I somehow forgot the sunscreen, and paid for my forgetfulness with a pretty painful sunburn that is on my upper shoulders, back of my neck, and then comes down to where the front of my shirt was. It’s most painful around the back of my neck and down my shoulders to my chest, and I have geeky camera strap marks from having my Nikon D40x around my neck all day long. Luckily, Alyssa didn’t pay for my stupidity. Between running around, walking in the shade and sitting in the stroller with the visor open, she was protected — absolutely no sunburn, anywhere!
We saw everything but the aviary (under construction) and small animal (the zoo had been closed for a half an hour when we left, so we didn’t want to dawdle any longer) house, and did everything except the hot air balloon ride (Alyssa is dying to; my fear of heights is kind of holding me back!), swan boat ride and kids tree house. Alyssa had her face painted (she chose a tiger, and the painter made it pink to match her clothes) and rode a pony (or was it a horse?), and generally had a wonderful time alternating between walking, riding in the stroller and on Dan’s shoulders while we traipsed all over the zoo and checked out all of the animals.
Photos! Oh, my goodness. So many photos. 664 of them (5.02GB worth!) to be exact. It took me over four hours to go through them all last night! I was shooting in RAW format, and actually filled up both the 4GB memory card and 2GB memory card that I brought along! My 24th birthday is in 17 days. I’m thinking I should ask for an 8GB memory card. 
I uploaded almost 100 photos altogether to Flickr. The set is here, and my favorites are beneath the cut. 
I love the peacocks.
Lurf.
Did you know that hippos have fuzzy ears?
Elephants are beautiful and majestic.
Sleepy kitty. ♥
It’s a Lissy Tiger (with a glittery nose!).
A mural in the childrens’ zoo.
Feeding the ducks.
As if I don’t see enough of these around here!
Fat, lazy and friendly goat in the petting zoo.
What is wrong with this goat?! Pregnant? Huge hips? Tumors? Drug smuggling?
Alyssa riding the pony (horse?).
A quite moment with Daddy.
Cheetah.
Meow.
This zebra needs a bath! Check out how the stripes extend into the mane.
Rainbow in the fountain as we were leaving.
Ten minutes after we left the zoo. Snoozing away with the stuffed tiger she picked out at the gift shop.
And… my painful, painful sunburn. 
12 Comments
, on May 27 2008 at 2:47pm:
I went to the zoo with my brother in law years ago! When he was married to his ex wife. We have to go again soon cause I wanna bring my mom. It’s a pretty nifty place!
, on May 27 2008 at 3:26pm:
Glad you had such a lovely time, when you finally left! Loving the photos.
, on May 27 2008 at 4:05pm:
Love the pics. The cheetah is all WTF ARE YOU LOOKIN AT?! haha. And that goat? I vote drug smuggling.
, on May 27 2008 at 4:50pm:
haha It’s neat how the elephant’s trunk leads into the tree trunk in the photo below it.
Had to say that before looking at the rest of the shots – now I’m going to scroll back up!
, on May 27 2008 at 5:53pm:
Looks like you had a great time Your photos are amazing. I need to get Mariah to the zoo this summer.. We were going to go last year but our summer was way too jam packed.
Hope your sunburn feels better soon!
, on May 27 2008 at 11:42pm:
I love the peacock one and the one of Alyssa feeding the ducks. Sounds like you all had a great time (minus the sunburn.)
, on May 28 2008 at 11:03am:
Oh my goodness Jenn, you are so brave for having taken 76 on Sunday! I would’ve just taken 23 into City Ave and gotten onto Girard that way.
I’m trying to get into the zoo sometime this summer. My nephew’s mother is having another baby and we’re trying to have some special time with him so he doesn’t feel beglected and pushed on to the burner once that baby comes and the zoo and Camden aquarium are pretty good options.
, on May 29 2008 at 10:24am:
I loved the photos, the one of Alyssa and Dan would be a beautiful one to frame or even make a nice front for a personally made Father’s Day card, its simply a beautiful Kodak moment! (even though it wasnt taken w/a Kodak camera!)
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess.
NICE pics and ZOMG that is such awesome face paint!!!!
Sorry to hear about the sunburns.