Woodland Park Zoo: Parenting lessons and informative signs abound

I arrived at the Zoo around 11:30 and met up with Dave, distinguished colleague, friend, and fellow user of the word 'fierce.'

Dave doesn't normally look like that, "it's Snow Leopard Day!" we find out at the ticket counter. Yes, the zoo was unveiling two snow leopard cubs born a few weeks ago, and it was happening in twenty minutes! We get excited and decide to make this our first stop, but when we reach the snow leopards, there is a line that stretches out the exhibit and into a habitat called 'Australasia.' At first I think Australasia is Woodland Park's clever naming of two merged exhibit areas (think Illinois' Fifth-Third Bank), but I just looked it up and it's "a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean." A really real place.

Anyway we decided that the line might not be worth it. Instead we settled for petting an adult one...

(It's totally real if you were wondering), as well as a very informative sign that ran through each leopard's stats and bio. As the day went on we found more of these informative signs--some of which I will share. The tigers were nearby, where we found this gem:

There was only one tiger in the exhibit, not two fighting ones. The sign explains that tigers will fight over mates, food, and territory. We found this to be somewhat of an obvious statement. It seemed unlikely that the tigers in the photograph were fighting over a job, health care reform, baseball teams.

I actually like this next one:

The contrast in the Savannah seasons is elegantly demonstrated by two photographs positioned side by side. My zoo companion did not like the sign because it "dichotomized - as we all too often do in our society - one single environment."

Not all of the day's lessons came from signs about animals and their environments. Here are three important things I learned about parenting from the zoo:

1. These plastic figures cost $8 - $10. Play with them in the gift shop and leave them there.

2. Telling your screaming three-year-old, "This isn't working for me, Robyn," will not make her stop screaming.

3. Have you seen these SUV strollers? They are outrageous!

And they were everywhere! Side-by-side, double decker, I think I saw a four-seater. Our amazement with these strollers was shared by one father as he said to his two young daughters, "I have seen some accessories for our stroller today that we don't have!"

I had fun at the zoo. But the best part about it? It's two blocks from Paseo, kickass sandwich shop.

The line outside Paseo stretched halfway down the block around 2:30pm. I reminded Dave that we had just ditched the snow leopards because of a too-long line, to which he replied, "well, you can't eat snow leopards."

Touche, most distinguished colleague, touche.