San Diego Zoo: Entry #743 in the List of Bad Ideas

I was feeling ambitious last Friday since hubby and I both had the day off.  I thought, wouldn't it be fun to take the B to the zoo?  She loves the animals in her books, so wouldn't it be a treat to see them in person?  Sounds great, right? 

The plan in my head:

1. Leave around 11 so the B will nap during the 3 hour drive down to San Diego
2. Spend the afternoon at the zoo
3. Have dinner at the hotel
4. Have the B sleep in the pack and play
5. Go for a swim at the hotel
6. Drive back home during her nap

This is what actually happened:

1. We couldn't get our act together, packing and booking a room etc.
2. Packed during the B's nap
3. Hubby needed a nap after the B's nap so I took the B to the park
4. Met up with the mama's at the park and joined their egg race (this part was fun)
5. Left the house at 6pm (wow, 7 hours after the plan)
6. The B complained the whole drive down (which means intermittent screaming)
7. We had to wait 30 minutes before they finally brought the pack and play to the room
8. Overtired B screamed for 30 minutes before she fell asleep
9. B woke up at 2am and WOULD NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP
10. Brought the B into bed with us and I got kicked for a couple of hours before I moved to sleep in the foot of the bed

What happened next deserves it's own paragraph...  After all that we finally made it to the zoo and that is when the disaster began.  The B cried so hard and for so long while fighting her nap, that the zoo security came over to kick us out.  The security guy gave us 15 minutes to calm her down or we would have to take the shuttle to the front.  Yes, it's true, the B almost got us kicked out of the zoo.  She finally went down and adverted the crisis.  Even after she woke up happy, the animals were only the slightest bit interesting to her.  She was more interested in the flora and other kids.  And did I mention that she pooped on the hour every hour...  such a delight carrying around poopy diapers.

Look Bonnie!  It's a rhino!

Whatever Mama, that was so 20 seconds ago.

Lessons Learned:

1. Don't make plans, time with a toddler hardly ever goes according to them anyway
2. Don't take the B anywhere outside of 30 mile radius from home unless we absolutely have to
3. Use disposable diapers during trips
4. No matter how late B goes to bed, she will wake up that much earlier in the morning

The funniest quote of the weekend, "You call that, crying?", said by hubby to a random crying toddler strollering by.