Zoo Day–And More

Today I had the day off–yahoo!  😉  Although, I spent the day with a bunch of five- and six-year-olds at the zoo, so, I’m not sure that really counts as a “day off.”  But, it meant I didn’t  have to go to work, so I’ll take it.

Before I went to the school to caravan with the rest of the kindergarten moms and dads down to the zoo, I went for a run.  I knew I needed to get back on my usual Tuesday-Thursday- Saturday run schedule (ha! when did I become someone who has a “run schedule”?!), so once the kids were on the bus, I went for a 2.25 mile run.  My last run (pre-5k) had been a 2-miler, so, based on my training plan, it was time to go 2.25 miles.

I started off very easy, because 1) I was still feeling tired from Sunday’s race and 2) I knew I was going to be chasing kindergartners around the zoo much of the day.  I was surpsied at how “not easy” my slow pace felt, though. 🙁  I guess that extra mile on Sunday was finally catching up to me.  Still, by the time I hit 1.75 miles, I was ready to be done, so I said to hell with the slow pace and picked it up.  Even though I knew I was pushing myself, I was surprised at how fast my last two splits were!

Not my fastest overall time, but not bad, either.  Here is my actual timing throughout the run:

It’s funny how you can see where I turned around and where I had to veer to the other side of the road to avoid being hit by a school bus! 🙂

After the run, I rushed through a shower and barely made it to the school on time. (Story of my life…)  The zoo is about 45 minutes away, and I’m sure it will come as no surprise to learn that I took a picture or two. 😉  Below are some of my favorites:

We have issues getting DS#2 to smile…I think he is numbed to smiling because he gets his picture taken so often. Poor kid!

We all swore this thing (crocodile? alligator?) was fake because he stayed in this exact position without moving for minutes on end.  Then I saw that his throat was moving up and down, showing that he was alive and breathing–it was kind of freaky!

When it came time for lunch, I was very happy I had decided to brown bag it with healthy foods like low-fat salami sandwiches, apples, bananas, and granola bars.  Not only did I save money and calories versus eating at the over-priced fried-food haven at the zoo–we ended up finding the most beautiful spot to have our lunch!

That’s the conservatory.  Doesn’t that just sound cool? 😉

There were so many beautiful flowers in the garden, I just couldn’t stop taking pictures!

It was really a beautiful day and a beautiful location for lunch in the garden.

Near the kiddie play area, I saw the coolest sculpture.

We went on the “safari” train ride, which had all kinds of interesting signs along the route.

Lots of animals, too, though they were harder to take pictures of due to the fencing.

After the train ride, we went to the polar bear exhibit, which was pretty cool but kind of intense.

After the polar bears, it was almost time to go, and since I had promised DS#2 an ice cream, we stopped to get him one on the way out.

We walked for almost three hours.  We spent much of the time with another mom and her son, who is best buds with my DS#2.  As we watched those two tear from one exhibit to another at break-neck speed, she and I commented many times on how we wished we had that kind of energy!  We were dragging by the time 2pm rolled around.

Still, that didn’t stop me tackling a major project when I got home.  I have been working on weeding out the front landscaping for over a week, with whatever spare time I could find between hockey, baseball, and oh yeah, my job.  The last part left was truly a mess.

Ugh! There are only supposed to be two small bushes in there! I worked on it for an hour, then had dinner, then went back for another 40 minutes, until finally…

Success!  To celebrate, I decided to grab my camera and rush to my favorite “secret” spot to get good sunset pictures, since the sunset looked like it might be promising.  After driving all the way there, however, it turned out to be less than ideal.

Not great, but not awful either.  However, the bonus came while I was walking past the wildlife refuge area…look who stopped to see what I was up to:

He was so close, and stood there watching me for at least 2 minutes, allowing me to take several pictures. Of all the days not to have my zoom lens with me! Heck, if I’d have had that, I could’ve given you a picture of his nosehairs, lol!

So that was my day…I swear, between the run, the walking at the zoo, and the hard-core weeding, I think I earned about 12 activity points today!

Thanks for reading!