The Short Road Trip: San Antonio, Day 2

Like usual, I awoke first. La Quinta has a complimentary breakfast bar, so I wandered over with the MacPro, logged on, and tucked in to a light meal, then brought back some coffee and muffins for the family. I know they sometimes sleep right past the breakfast window. (There was a Denny's next door if needed, but "free" is such a better price for breakfast.)

The one webpage I made sure to review was for the San Antonio Zoo, which was our day's destination. Unfortunately, we didn't get started until late morning, and it turned out that, since it was spring break week for much of Texas (but not, apparently, for San Antonio, which had taken its break the week before), the Zoo was the destination of many, many other people as well.

Finding the Zoo was not difficult, but the parking lot was full -- so I dropped Val and the kids and continued on. The next two parking lots were also full. Finally, at a large municipal building up the street, I found some parking space at the far back of the lot. I hiked back toward the entrance, where the family was almost up to the admission booth. (Good thing I got there before they did, as I had the web discount coupon.)

Once inside, we rented a double-wide stroller, which is still a good idea even at our kids' ages (7 and 4). It greatly improves out team mobility. With the kids saddled up, we struck out through the Zoo.

The crowd was immense -- which was little issue for the exhibits, but ghastly for concessions. Even at a late lunch hour, we had to wait a long time. Thankfully, the cafeteria had a fruit salad to go along with burgers and chicken nuggets (I ordered a veggie burger, which wasn't bad, but took much longer to cook than the hamburgers, which were being cranked out, so that made the delay even longer.)

That was all just capacity issues, though (and reportedly, the Zoo had a significantly larger crowd on Monday -- so glad we didn't go then). The animals themselves were great. There was only one elephant, always my favorite (they're just so big), and all it did was walk about and eat hay (as it should) -- but I loved watching nonetheless. The Zoo has a large bird collection, with an enormous amount of cranes, many of which nest in the trees -- and with leaves not quite blooming yet, they were easily visible. It was an impressive sight.

We also saw crocodiles, lying so still the kids didn't believe they were real. A large indoor exhibit of toads and frogs, which Carson loved. A sleepy grizzly bear. Various primates. An enormous anaconda. Zebras, rhinos, a giraffe, ostriches. Many, many exotic fauna from far-flung places, which otherwise we never would get to see live.

The Zoo is not especially large, but we whiled away the entire afternoon, never moving urgently, and at 5:00 -- admissions stop, but an hour short of closing time -- we were back near the gate. The kids got a tour of the gift shop, and finally we stepped out. I hiked off for the car, we loaded up, and headed for home, 75 miles north.

Both kids fell asleep on the drive.