Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo

I went to the zoo yesterday. I'm not a big zoo fan. The Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake was sort of fun when I was a kid, but I don't remember ever begging to go. I remember the concrete habitats the animals were caged up in and sticking my head in the lion drinking fountain while my dad took a picture.

When Abram and Aubrey were little we lived in Omaha, we had a zoo pass and went there almost every week. It was a great zoo. We also were spoiled having the Kansas City zoo a few hours away. That was the first zoo I had ever seen where great effort had gone into keeping the animals habitats as much like their natural ones as possible. I could have sworn I was somehow transported to the African Savanna where the lions, giraffes, and zebras were roaming freely. And then dinner at KC Masterpiece.

When we moved to Portland we took the kids to the zoo like good parents, and we were shocked. Nothing had changed at the Oregon zoo in at least 50 years. Same old cages and concrete habitats that you see in "Sammy The Seal" and "Curious George" books. We didn't ever go back. Not necessarily from an animal-humane point of view, but just from a what-a-rip-off-boring-zoo point of view.

I had noticed in the news over the past several years that the zoo had been making improvements. And every year when we get our property tax statement and I see how much money I'm paying for the stupid zoo bond I didn't vote for, I think I really should go see what I've purchased.

Yesterday was a no-school day for the kids. Mark, Abram and Jacob left on a snowcaving trip, and I decided it was a good day to take the five buddies to the zoo. They loved it. I was surprised at how much more modern it was. It is a great place to take a walk, if nothing else. And because it costs the same for our family to go once or to buy an annual membership, I bought the membership, and we will be back. Lucky for Zachary.

Our kids are full of ethusiasm and energy. They ran and laughed and said so many funny things that my tummy hurt from laughing. I was laughing so hard at Joel banging the glass on the sea lions exhibit like Darla on Finding Nemo, "Fishy, wake up. Why won't you wake up? FISHY!"

Afterward, we went to lunch at Panda Express (aka Kung Fu Panda), where we were all surprised when I opened my fortune cookie to see that I had no fortune. I was glad it was mine and not Zachary's. He gets pretty excited about extracting the paper from the fortune cookie. We topped it off with Krispy Kreme donuts. It was a very fun day. Much more fun than snowcaving would have been, in my opinion.

I think the funniest part of the day was when we had been at the zoo about 20 minutes, and I realized that I was almost the only mother who was NOT wearing Dansko clogs. Not saying they are bad--just sayin' that I think I may be the only mother-of-young-children in the Portland area who does not own Dansko clogs. It was really funny. I told Aubrey, and she didn't believe me. But then around every corner we would encounter another mom wearning Danskos and we would both start laughing. Especially when it was a group of 2 or 3 moms who had come to the zoo together, and they all had the same shoes on. It was really funny. I have heard they are quite comfortable, but after seeing them all over yesterday, I'm beginning to believe there is something to that. The problem with Danskos for me is that the heel is so high that not only to I tend to trip myself, but also Mark is only 1/4 inch taller than I , and I tend to choose footwear that does not make me look like an Amazon next to him.