Into the Wild

Well, I decided to attempt to do something fun for Spring Break and that's how most hot mess stories start. 

Bless it be. 

I chose the zoo. I thought, it's outside and you can only buy tickets online at certain time slots which must mean they are limiting how many they sold. Foolish, foolish me. I thought this was a safe choice. 

We have not done anything in a large crowd in a year and instead of easing in to it - we joined 8 million other people in Hermann Park. This is what happens when the weather is gorgeous and we're not in a pandemic. Only we're in a pandemic but no one wants to be in one anymore so we're pretending like we're not and EVERY ONE was there. Together. Outside. To-ge-ther.

Me = Freak. Mode. 

Our tickets were for 2pm-3pm. This means you have to enter the Zoo at that time. No sooner, no later. We arrive with almost half an hour to spare only with 8 million people, there is no parking. None. Zero. Zilch. 

We circle the entire area once and only once because by the time we make it back to the entrance of Hermann Park - they've closed the road to traffic due to no parking options. 

This is 1:45ish now. 

I'm immediately defeated because that's my automatic Go To response for such stuff. 

I happen to know mom is on her way to work so I call her to check on the Light Rail by her hospital. We end up meeting her at work and she offers to drop us off at the zoo. Bless her. She is the best. 

I am still in defeated freak mode. They're not going to let us in. All will be lost. I've ruined Spring Break.

We get out on the side of the road on Fannin and scamper through the park. We arrive at the zoo at 3:08. My Beloved asks if we can still get and they say yes. All is saved! 

And then we enter the park full of people wearing masks and standing way to close to each other. I spent the entire 3 hours saying "don't touch that. here's some hand sanitizer." Freak. Mode. 

The Houston Zoo is doing the best they can to keep us respectfully apart. They are limiting the number of people in the building exhibits so we did have to wait in line to see the bugs but they had lines drawn because humans are dumb and we can't tell 6 feet apart unless we're shown. We also stopped to eat a quick snack INSIDE. It was a weird time of day so there was only one other family inside which means we could stay on opposite sides of the place which feels safer. This was the first time we have eaten inside a restaurant in over year. It has been such a strange time.

We have not been to the zoo since the Kindergarten Field Trip that was also very much worth blogging about and a lot has changed. I feel like the Zoo has done a fantastic job with their renovations. It was an absolutely beautiful day and we got to see a lot of animals. 

You get to walk under this guy now which is both totally awesome and a little intimidating because he looked like he was trying really hard to find his way out. 

At the end of the day we had to figure out how to get back to our car. This meant we got to have a Light Rail adventure. We walked back through Hermann Park and caught the rail in the medical center. This might have been Alice's favorite part. It only cost us $3.25 and will probably be the only way we go to the zoo ever again. We will park at the park and ride and ride it in. Or just ride it for the three hours the ticket is good for and see all of Downtown Houston. 

Alice had fun seeing the animals. We had an adventure. The weather was lovely. We made memories. We survived. 

And we will never attempt this during Spring Break again. 

Until next time..... here's some cute animals -