Australia Zoo: Part 3

To conclude our day at the zoo, we walked through the aviary and then past the wombats and into the snake enclosure.  The kids seemed really intrigued by all of the snakes, so we stayed in there for quite some time looking at all of them.  Then we walked past a nice playground, which Evan was dying to play at.  We convinced him we'd come back after we ran over to the otter show and saw the dingoes, Tasmanian devil, and cassowary (which the kids learned to call the "dinosaur bird").  On our way to the otter show, though, we went back past the tea cups and Evan saw that the bouncing castle there was open (it was not open when they rode the tea cups earlier in the day).  Evan really wanted to do that too, so we promised him that after the otter show and after we saw the other part of the park (dingoes, etc), we'd come right back to do the jumping castle and the playground.  We made it to the otter show just as it was starting.  Otters are so darn cute because they are so playful!  The kids got front row seats and actually sat still for the duration of the (relatively short) show.  

Evan and Emma watch the otters play in the floating ball pit during the otter show.

After the otters, we made our way through the only area of the zoo we had not been to yet.  One reason we had to go to this area was to get the last clue in our scavenger hunt we had been doing all day.  It was a special kids activity for the school holidays, and there were 7 clues and at each you had to use a pencil to etch the shape of these fossil imprints to collect them all.  The last clue we didn't have was at the cassowary exhibit.  After seeing those animals and getting our final clue, we headed straight back to the jumping castle area.  Upon arriving I immediately noticed something was missing...the jumping castle had been deflated for the day! :(  I instantly felt intense sadness for Evan knowing he had his heart set on going on it, and we'd promised him he could later.  If only I had checked the times! :(  And so of course, as soon as Evan saw the castle was deflated he began to cry.  Poor guy!  At this point, we saw the tea cups were still running, so we tried to appease his sadness by diverting his attention to going on the teacups again and then going to the playground.  We waited at the tea cups by the entry gate and as the attendant came over she said, sorry guys this was the last ride!  I told Evan that I was sorry that his luck was not working out today, and I think the lady felt bad for him and said, well I could do a really short ride for them.  That was so kind of her, given my kids have no idea how long the ride should have been anyway.  Just the fact that they got to ride on this ride after having been so disappointed about the jumping castle helped smooth things over.  She even let Emma ride with Evan this time (instead of with an adult, which she was just on the cut off for needing an adult with her). Of course, we went to the playground after this too, so Evan was back to his happy self. 

After we were starting to get bit by mozzies at the playground, and the fact that the zoo was nearly about to close for the day, we had to get Evan ready to go.  Of course, he didn't want to leave the playground, so John made up a white lie.  John told Evan that the dinosaur bird gets let loose after the zoo closes to help scare and chase away people that don't want to leave.  Sure enough, that helped encourage Evan to wrap up his playground time, but then it also meant he was constantly asking us about that ("why do they let it out?", "what will it do when it's loose?", etc).  The way out went past the first croc sculpture and so the kids had to have another climb.  Evan was still having a bit of a fit about leaving though, so John decided to feed him to the croc!  We also had to run back to the information desk quickly before leaving to get our scavenger hunt prize (a cardboard cut out T-Rex 3-D puzzle to build at home).  Then it was time to leave.

Before we left the zoo premises, I  realized we hadn't gotten any full family photos.  John suggested we stop by this wall we were walking past that had a huge Steve Irwin mural for the photo. Soon after a lot of other people started gathering there waiting to also take their photo with that mural.  The main reason we stopped there was because it didn't have any people gathered around (compared to some of the other zoo entry signs/walls, etc).  Trend setters? We also grabbed another family pic outside by the front entry to the car park.  Emma was pretty tired by this time, though, so was not interested in smiling or even keeping her eyes open for the photos!  Since we ended up staying the whole day, she didn't get her normal afternoon nap.  She was quite a trooper though, but on the car ride home, both kids pretty much zonked right out.  

What a fun, but exhausting, outing to Australia Zoo!

The kids passing out in the car on the way home, made me think of the last verse of the song "Going to the zoo", where it's sung in past tense and all slow:

Well we stayed all day and I'm gettin' sleepy

Sittin' in the car gettin' sleep sleep sleepy

Home already gettin' sleep sleep sleepy

'Cause we have stayed all day. 

We've been to the zoo zoo zoo

So have you you you

You came too too too

We've been to the zoo zoo zoo 

We've been to the zoo, zoo, zzzzzzzz....