Zoo FAIL

So originally I was going to meet a friend at the Toledo Zoo last weekend. But, she wasn't feeling well on Saturday and we were going to the air show in Dayton on Sunday. So.... the weather was supposed to be nice today so this morning I sent a quick text over to Mary and she said sure... see you there at 10. Well, Greg thought he'd better come since I'd have a tough time navigating animals and two kids. Nice thought, it's ALWAYS easier with one more adult! I pulled up the zoo website and purchased tickets and a parking pass online. I had the option to pick up the tickets at Will Call or print them at home. Normally, I would have just printed - but it said it could take up to 2 hours for the email to arrive. Ummmm, no thanks. So I chose will call. By the time we were all loaded up and out the door, I knew we'd miss Mary and Callahan -- but we'd give it a shot to see if we could find each other. We arrived at the zoo, made it to the parking lot, gathered our supplies and headed in.

The ticket line was fairly long, but I saw some booths that said Advanced Tickets or something along those lines. We headed that way and got in line. There was a woman standing by the gate to get in and she said, if you already have your tickets, I can let you in here. I went to show her the printout receipt and she tells me,"Oh -- you need to go to Guest Services to pick up your tickets." UGH - are you kidding me? I told Greg to stay there with Atticus and Wren and I headed over to Guest Services. I was number three in line. Doesn't sound too daunting except the person at the window apparently had a million and one issues! She was having a party there at 3, but the people were arriving at different times, and where would they leave the gifts and where did they catch the train and could some people do x while others did y, and what about if they had membership passes and what about BLAH BLAH BLAH. Seriously, it was ridiculous. Made even more so by the fact that will call tickets were being held at Guest Services! Oy. So - finally got the tickets, went back to the boys and got into the park. (Learned later that the woman at the gate was supposed to have given each of the kids a FREE Fisher Price toy -- but we never got those!!!) I was trying to read the map while slathering on sunscreen and texting with Mary to see where she was at this point. So - I turned the wrong way towards Africa instead of African Safari (or vice versa). G'ah.... turned back around and headed towards the new baby elephant, Lucas. The place was crowded, we didn't even get to see the baby and we never found Mary! We continued on, but it was so hot that 99% of the animals were hiding. Seriously. I think we saw 4 animals. We attempted to seek refuge in the Aquarium - but it was wicked crowded in there too - and my kids were getting restless. We tried to see what was offered at the Fisher Price special setup thingy - but there was a long line there too, so we kept walking. We ended up playing at the playground for a while before saying - two peas in a bucket! We packed up and headed to the car. It just wasn't meant to be.

And I'm still peeved we didn't get our free Fisher Price toy!