“Mmm, let’s start at the beginning, that way we do a loop.”
“Smart boy. Let’s go.”
We went through the Wildlife Explorers basecamp rather quickly. It was packed with children, so Jamie just ran through the water play area really fast while I stood by holding onto his backpack. That was until he saw the Axolotl exhibit. After that he made his first stuffie purchase of the trip, along with a tube of plastic animals for Henry and Chase. He wasn’t as impressed with the reptile house,but he was ecstatic to see the tortoises. He literally stopped and took pictures of every animal we came across.
“Look Daddy,” Jamie pointed up, “there’s a ride that goes across the park.”
“Do you want to take it?”
Vehemently, he shook his head. “No thank you. I do not care for rides. Not that I have been on any, but it scares me to watch them on TV.”
While the one overhead was not the same as what I’m sure he envisioned, I respected his wishes and silently thanked him. I too did not care for those whirly, twirly, make you vomit, rides.
“Monkeys Daddy! So many monkeys.”
My boy’s excitement drove me to each exhibit, and no matter how tired I was I pressed on, for him. Jamie was the reason we were on this excursion, and I would do anything to ensure he had the best trip of his life. By the time we got through the Lost Forest, we both required a break and food, and this seemed the perfect stop given the numerous food options it had.
“Hey Daddy, can I see the map please?” I set up his dippy sauces, thankfully they had his favorites, while he mapped out the rest of our day. “Can we see the polar bears next?”
“Absolutely. Eat up then we will pop into the shop and on to the polar bears.”
So far, expenses had been kept under control, but given we’d not been to his favorite stuffie friends enclosures yet, I knew things were about to get crazy.
“Daddy, look, polar bears swimming. I didn’t know they could swim.”
“Of course they do, silly boy. They love the cold water and ice.”
Stuffie purchase number two. Once he saw the polar bears, he had to have one. Evidently, so did Henry and Chase. As much as he loved the penguins, I was surprised when he didn’t grab one of those too. But I’m pretty sure he had the map memorized by now and knew exactly where we were headed.
“Look Daddy,” I had heard that so many times today I gave up looking anywhere he wasn’t already. “They have a baby George, and you can feed the big ones.” I got him a handful of the food for purchase to feed the giraffes, and he giggled when their tongues touched his hand. I got several fantastic shots of my boy smiling wide as he fed them, and I couldn’t wait to print and frame one.
“Have you been texting Henry and Chase all your pictures?”
“Yes, Daddy. They’re just as excited as I am.”
It is highly unlikely, but I got the gist of it.
“What’s our next stop?”
“Kiki!” He shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Yes, Kiki.” We had tried to see the sloths, but they weren’t available today and while Jamie was disappointed, he wasn’t overly sad, because he knew he’d get up close and personal with them at SeaWorld.
“I love koala’s so much.”
“More than sloths?”
“Nope, the same.”
A million pictures later, into the Urban Jungle store we went for stuffie number three. A koala cousin for Kiki. On the way out, we hit the main gift shop, and we each picked out a beach towel for tomorrow’s beach day trip.
Huge, and I do mean the largest one they had, reuseable shopping bag in hand, I loaded one very tired boy into the vehicle. “Did you get to see all the animals you wanted?”
“Oh Daddy, it was so wonderful. I didn’t get to see a panda like Patty, but I did get to see a red panda, and they were really cute and funny. No Sloffers but we will see his family at SeaWorld.”Yawn.“My feet hurt but it was totally worth it. Can I soak them in the ocean at the hotel?”
“Yes, you may soak them in the bay.” Though it was likely I would have to wake him up for that. “I think we’ll have dinner in the room again tonight. What do you say?”
“Yes, please, Daddy.”
