At the Zoo {Family Caribbean Day 2}

Over the years, Sam and I have had some pretty serendipitous travel. When we went to Cancun in 2013, we just happened to be there during the tail end of our friends Frank and Megan's trip and the beginning of my aunt, uncle, and cousin's vacation, so we managed to see them both while we were there. We joked that it was funny we had to go all the way to Mexico to see each other, since Frank and Megan lived in Beckley, WV at the time, and my aunt and her family lives in Northern Virginia.

When Dad and I were talking about getting together the week of Christmas, he mentioned that January would be tricky because they would be in Florida one weekend mid-month. I asked where he was going to be in Florida, and he said Donna had a work conference in Tampa. Really? We'll be in Tampa in mid-January. What days? Oh, just the exact same days that we will be there before our cruise! So, we decided that we'd meet up there to see each other.

 

Saturday ended up being the best day for Dad, so he got to join us and the girls for a beautiful day at the Tampa Lowry Park Zoo. We used our Tampa Trio tickets, and found parking (and Dad) easily, so we were inside the zoo within minutes.

The weather could not have been better for our day there. Sunny and warm with a breeze, never hot, never cold. Perfect. If you couldn't tell from our pictures from yesterday, I actually decided to bring my decent camera (not my nicest, but a DSLR) on the trip, since I finally have more willing subjects. If I try to take Sam's picture more than once a day, it's usually met with complaining. ha. But, I got excited, and uploaded pictures to my laptop and then forgot to put the SD card back in my camera, so I showed up at the zoo with a camera and no memory card. So, back to the grainy phone pictures it is! :) Sorry, guys.

We spent the day strolling around the park, taking in the monkeys and lorakeets, lions and elephants. The girls got a donut from Krispy Kreme donut in the morning, and a Dippin' Dots ice cream to share in the afternoon (seriously, they are going to need a sugar detox when we get back from vacation, but hey, it's vacation.)

 

 

After all the fun they had yesterday with the sting rays, they couldn't wait another second to go see their "besties" the sting rays. This time they even got to feed them! And boy, could you tell the difference. Those little Pavlov's dogs, errr stingrays, would swim right up to the edge because they clearly associated zoo-goers with food. Harper took total credit for that, and claimed it was because she knew how to pet them from yesterday. Of course. Willa was much more enthusiastic to touch them today. I was so proud of her! She got so excited after she touched the first one, and said, "I'm weally bwave!" They eagerly showed Papaw how to touch them with only two fingers and only on their wings.

 

 

 

Since the girls have liked the interactive exhibits the most over the two days, Papaw treated the girls (or should I say giraffes?) to a closeup view to the zoo's tallest animals. We waited in line for about 20 minutes, and right as we neared the front, the giraffe walked away from our little landing. A kind guide at the stingray pool had told us to go ahead and try to feed the giraffes if we were wanting to do it because after a certain point in the afternoon, they will go wait for their evening feeding, and there's really nothing you can do to coax them to come over. Great. We had hit that window. Our tall friend had gone over to his tree to check for some hay, but when he saw he still just had some sticks in there, he came on back to get his fill of lettuce from the girls. When I asked Harper what she thought of them, she said, "Mom. If you combined all the animals' tongues in the world, I don't think it would even be as long as his." Slight exaggeration, maybe, but it was pretty long.

 

Having had a great day yesterday at the aquarium, I think Harper thought she knew the Tampa animal scene at this point, so she was running from exhibit to exhibit, hating to wait for the rest of us. That girl's attitude struggles the most when she thinks she should be in charge (ack, it's going to be a rough, but rewarding 13 years). She was pretty contentious for a lot of the day, but luckily, Dad knows a few Type A folks (wink, wink) and takes Harper in stride. Plus, he got extra Willa Kate love since Harper wasn't monopolizing all of Papaw's attention.

We ate together at the Lodge restaurant and peeked at a few more animals before calling it a day. Dad needed to get back for dinner, and the girls were clearly tired. So, we loved on him and thanked him for meeting us. It really was sweet that he took the time to come see us.

We knew the girls were tired, but we didn't know just how tired they were. As we were pulling in to the hotel, it was about 4:30, so I figured we'd lay the girls down for an hour or so, and head to dinner around 6:30. Well, Willa slept for three hours, and Harper did not wake up until M I D N I G H T. What? A seven hour nap? That explained a lot about her lackluster performance at the zoo. Since the girls were zonked, we just ordered in pizza and watched the NFL playoff games in the hotel room. Harper woke up at 12, ate a few pieces of pizza, and went right back to sleep until 7 a.m. Sweet girls was exhausted. She basically went straight from school into travel, and I guess she never really caught up.

Thanks for being a good sport, Dad! It was worth the $19 for this cute picture. :)

And here's the rest of our vacation fun...