Natural Bridge Zoo: We will find our way home eventually!

First of all, as I reflect on my past blogs, I realize the tremendous amount of typos!  I am so sorry for my lack of spell check and promise to do better.  Us moms type in the few moments of peacefulness we have and that often means getting an idea down and little more than that.  I make few promises about grammar and am sure that there will be many mistakes in that department.  If I am ever capable of writing a book, both my mother and mother in law will be proofing all my work!

Off to our adventure:  I had been searching for a zoo for Owen.  We did not have one near us in Stuart and I realized that Owen had never been to the zoo.  He LOVES animals and has such a soft nature and curiosity for them.  So I searched and found one called the Natural Bridge Zoo.  In my comparison it appeared to be closer that the Richmond zoo and one person had ranked it raving about the baby lion cubs.  What a day it became!  I somtimes am so thankful that Owen can't verbalize the fiascos that I get us into on many days.  The 45 minute drive took us an hour and a half.  (Might I remind you that we still have no heat in the car and we were freezing in the mountains!) Owen fell asleep so it became a long drive of irritated self thoughts about a cold car, the BMW that is sooo nice that my husband drives and many other thoughts that I will keep to myself about this move!  It would have been a perfect time to have that implanted ipod in my brain that should be playing vs. where my thoughts can end up in a quiet hour.  I promise to be working on that!

Well, when we drove up we could barely find a door or entrance.  Our zoo looked a bit shady but we after that drive we were going no matter what.  We went in a little shop which was the entrance to the zoo and asked for a map- the lady laughed at me and told me it was a figure 8 and I wouldn't get lost.  Bad sign.  Also, the zoo path was gravel.  Super bad with a push stroller!!  It does not go in gravel.  Much of the time was spent pushing it through the rocks while carrying Owen up the hill.  We ended up having the place to ourselves (since everyone else knows its not the place to go!) and Owen really did love checking out the animals.  The monkeys would come right up to the window and Owen would just touch the glass and giggle.  The chickens roamed free as well as two very large emu's that scared me to death.  These "birds" that were as tall as me, would follow looking for feed.  I often would look around wondering if we had gone into an area we shouldn't have since most of the gates were open and they were bringing in hay to the large animals.  The elephant was in an open area with two dogs watching it!  It did have two adorable baby tigers that we watched for a bit.  It was chilly and Owen snuggled up and we walked throught the zoo for about an hour.  After that we were done, no place to snack or have a picnic and the restrooms were atrocious!  Back to home I say!  Of course I asked for directions- or a better way home and two different people could give me nothing!  Just blank stares as if Charlottesville was a foreign country.  I tried to figure out a bit of a short cut which very pleasingly added an additional 45 minutes to the drive home and a screaming toddler who wanted "out of car!!".  I shared my experience with a friend and puzzled she looked at me and asked- why didn't you just go to the Richmond zoo?  Good question.