A Day at the National Zoo

One of the major highlights of our recent DC trip was the National Zoo. Visiting the zoo is actually a free experience, though it ended up being one of our most expensive trips. It’s definitely worth the money, but don’t think you’re going to get by without spending any money. Parking is $22 if you drive, maps are $3, and lunch was astronomical. We wouldn’t have had to buy lunch, but because the zoo is so big, we spent 5 hours there, which meant we definitely hit meal time.

We arrived at 9:30am, knowing the zoo opened at 10:00am, thinking we’d hit the visitor’s center first. What we weren’t clear on though, is that you can walk in and see animals well before 10:00. It’s the buildings that don’t open until 10:00am, like the reptile house and small mammal exhibit. We were able to see zebras, cheetahs, and a whole plethora of weird animals I can’t remember the name of before the zoo actually opened.

This kids were VERY excited to see the pandas, so that was one of our first stops. It was cool to see pandas, but the area was super crowded and they were all indoors eating their breakfast (or lunch?), so they weren’t overly exciting, and they were sitting pretty far away. The close quarters did not stop me from getting a #HandstandsAcrossAmerica picture of R in front of a panda though!

The kids took a ton of pictures, literally stopping at every animal to take several photos. At the beginning of the day, even after 10:00am, it seemed like there were several empty habitats. It’d probably be smart to loop back around at the end of the day, but we were exhausted by then. Don’t take this the wrong way, because I know it’s better for the animals to have larger habitats, but seriously everything is so. Spread. Out. If you are questioning whether or not to bring a wagon or a stroller, especially if you drove your own vehicle, do it. I’m pretty sure if I’d had the option I would have been the one riding!

There are maps posted all over, but we spent the $3. You wouldn’t have to, but it’s a fun little souvenir and it was helpful to have the list of special activities throughout the day. Plus, it’s a great cause, all the money goes back to the zoo.

We ended up eating lunch at the zoo café, which was, as you would expect, average food, and sky high prices (I think the kids' meals were around $10). One thing you should note though, is that while it looks like a place you should stand in line and wait your turn, they actually want you to do it cafeteria style, and just walk up to whichever counter as food that interests you. That took us (and everyone else) a little while to figure out. When we left we realized there were a few restaurants right across the street. We could have walked out, left the car parked, and eaten better food, but it wouldn't have been much cheaper. Remember, you’re in DC. Pretty much all the food is expensive.

Some of our favorite exhibits included:

• The monkeys and gorillas – you had a chance to get pretty close to them when you were inside the building, and they have some sort of orangutan jungle gym that lets them climb out and up above the zoo. They also do educational talks with the gorillas, which was really cool to hear.
• R’s favorites were the pandas and the tigers. A liked the tigers. My issue with both the lions and tigers was that they were super far away, it was hard to get a good look.
• J enjoyed the elephant habitat, even though we weren’t allowed to go inside that day since there was a sick elephant. You get to look down on them from above, but can also see them around the sides.
• The small mammals building was kind of fun, but while the kids and J were excited about the reptile house, I mostly thought it smelled ridiculously bad.

Overall it was a great experience. We would definitely take the kids again, though we might plan our meal times differently. In fact, R actually said she would love to work at that particular zoo someday, and that she would invite us to visit whenever we wanted. She’s so passionate about animals and animal care, it was fun to see her in her element. Both kids actually took the time to read every bit of posted information about the animals as we walked through, which sort of surprised me, so don’t underestimate those learning opportunities while you’re there!

And then... the raccoons invaded our camp site

I have never had quite the adventures camping as I did on our most recent trip to Shades State Park in Indiana. We camped all the time when I was younger, though we stopped tent camping when I was in… upper elementary, maybe? When we got married, Jeromy and I registered for a bunch of camping gear, but we haven’t taken our tent out since Aaden was probably Easton’s age. First, life tends to get in the way, and second, my sister in law bought a nice camper a while back, and the kids like going with them in the air conditioning.

Anyway, since my sister and I had camped while we were in Indy for training camp several years ago, and we could do it for $17/night instead of $70 (or more) in a hotel, so we decided to go for it. The first night was uneventful, aside from putting up the tent while it was pitch black. Shades does not have much as far as lamp posts – it’s definitely back to nature kind of stuff. The DNR ranger who helped get me registered the next morning said this was one of the best parks for tent camping. We actually found a nice little spot right across from the bathroom, so we had a little light, and the older two could easily walk across the street without me worrying. Other than setting up in the dark, the hardest thing about night number one, was the ground. Since we hadn’t camped in years, we had no idea where our air mattress was. We remedied this for the second night by buying clearance pool floaties at Wal-Mart on the way to Anderson. At $4.50 a piece, we each had our own bed that will double as a flotation device in case our tent falls in a lake!

We spent all of that next day at training camp, so we didn’t spend a lot of time in the campground, but it was quite large, and the map showed tons of trails around the grounds. Then… we came home from training camp. And as we pulled in, I saw a raccoon. And as we pulled in farther, I saw the door to our tent open, and a pile of food in front of the raccoon. Obviously, I did what any good wife would do, and made J get out and go check the tent after honking at the coon to get it to move. Sure enough, the little guy (at the time I did not have such kind words) had broken into our tent, gotten into my duffle bag, and stolen several bags of trail mix.

As we attempted to make a fire, and after we had gotten rid of the food remnants outside the door of our tent, the friendly raccoon kept coming back. He’d jump on our picnic table or creep around the back of the tent. Persistent little guy. As J worked on the fire and I blew up our “mattresses” with some help from A, we went to get the s’more stuff out. Guess what. It wasn’t just the trail mix that had been stolen. Gone were an entire bag of jumbo marshmallows and a container of fudge stripe cookies.* Shortly after, J asked about the chips. Yep, they’d also taken the jumbo bag of snack size chips (you know, the variety packs with like 20 little bags?). I will note they left the veggie straws and granola bars. Probably way too healthy for them.

So. There we are, s’more-less, fireless, and sitting in the dark. Did I mention I forgot to bring a lantern? Then the fighting began. Not myself and J, or even the kids. The raccoons. The animals were growling and fighting over the remaining food that they had stashed in the wooded area behind our camp site. That was the last straw. Ry jumped up on the table, terrified, and then all three kids took off for the van, proclaiming it the safe spot for the evening. As the fighting continued, J and I debated the merits of just grabbing our stuff and going home, knowing that there was no way we were going to get the kids to sleep in a tent next to angry critters.

Next, we did what any good parents would do. We grabbed all our stuff, left the tent set up, and dragged everything we owned, in the dark, across the road to an empty site in a much more open setting, away from the remnants of our would-be snacks and thieving camping companions. The kids remained in the van until we had everything squared away, and then didn’t leave the tent for the rest of the night.

We later thought better of keeping the cooler in the tent as
part of our "wall" and moved it to the van!

This all, of course, has nothing to do with a bad experience at Shades, and really just speaks to our amateur status as campers. Or our Beed’s Lake status, which is generally so packed full of people that I don’t think raccoons would ever set foot in the area. However, a note for those camping here in the future, especially as I lay writing and listening to raccoon chatter outside my tent – there is plenty of wildlife in the area. Keep your food and coolers in your vehicle! We had to barricade our tent door with bags and suitcases to make the kids (and maybe mommy) feel safe for night two. R proclaimed our “visitors” the worst part of the trip, even worse than the drive.

*If you ever don’t have graham crackers and chocolate, fudge stripe cookies are a great substitute. In fact, sometimes if there aren’t any good seasonal deals on “camping supplies” this is actually a significantly cheaper and easier way to do a s’more.

#coltscamp 2015

When I realized a birthday party with friends was not going to work out this summer for Aaden, I told him we could either wait and try to do one after school had started, or he could pick a fun family trip instead. He chose fun family trip, and at my suggestion, he agreed that heading out to Indy for Colts training camp was an excellent idea.

If you’ve never been to Anderson for training camp, there are some things to be aware of. As I mentioned in a previous post, my sister and I had gone several years prior, so I sort of knew the lay of the land. Parking in Anderson is on campus. When we had gone earlier, I’m pretty sure we paid $15-20 to park. Sometime in the span between then and now, they regulated the parking at made it $5. This was awesome. We had to walk the equivalent of a couple blocks, but they had golf carts running the whole time for people who needed assistance, and port-a-potties around the route. If you go on an “event day” like kids day or BBQ Bash day, it is possible they will run out of parking (they did this year), so be sure to get there early. A bonus of getting there early, the players apparently have a little free time, because we saw Coby Fleener riding around on a golf cart (largely unnoticed without any football gear on), and E waved and said hi. Fleener waved and said hi back! E had no idea, of course, he told me he was “wavin’ to the people.” The translation of the video at the top of the post is E, excited to be heading into training camp, telling SnapChat that we're gonna "Go see the Colts!"

Colts City opens about an hour and a half prior to practice starting, so we showed up right at 12:30 in our Colts gear. There was plenty of stuff to do until practice started. They had a full pro shop set up, tons of booths from vendor types, autographs from cheerleaders, inflatables, an NFL Play 60 zone where you could test your football skills, and all kinds of snacks for purchase. A declared the snow cone one of his favorite parts of the trip, but they also gave away free ice cream at one station!

We camped out along the fence in the end zone for practice, because there was a little more space, and it was close to the entrance/exit where they players would arrive and depart. This can sometimes be a good place for post-practice autographs, though those are really hit or miss.

R said she loved the whole training camp experience – despite the fact that it was long (although she pointed out that her practices are longer) and hot. Once again, my kids impressed me with how patient and well-behaved they were. E entertained himself with rocks and water bottles all afternoon while the rest of us watched the team workout. Side note, there is not a ton of shade in the sports complex, so be sure to pack plenty of sunscreen and water!

After practice, if you’re lucky, you’ll get some autographs. Remember E’s previous interaction with TE Coby Fleener? Well this time, as the players walked off the field and E practiced his stellar parade wave, Adam Vinatieri noticed him and made a beeline right for E to ask for a high five and to sign his ball. Vinatieri was a class act, taking it all in stride – you could tell he’s a veteran with 20 training camps under his belt! He even managed to return every marker he used to sign to its rightful owner. After kind of a long wait, and a couple tears that they’d only gotten one autograph (E got two), we noticed Coach Pagano still hadn’t left the field. A few die hards, ourselves included, were still waiting around, and even though the golf cart driver told the fans it was time to go, Coach hopped off the cart and started signing. We seemed to keep missing him, and the driver said that they really needed to leave, and my kids were looking a little sad again, when some guy standing next to us said, “Coach, how about these kids right here?” Coach Pagano came back for one more set of autographs for R and A – totally making their day!

Next time we’ll probably come a little later in the day, though that would mean parking farther away, but practice got a little long for the kids. If it wasn’t the sole reason we’d come we maybe could have cut it a little shorter, but since it was the purpose of our trip, it seemed like a good idea to get the most out of it. 

Checking Airplanes Off the Bucket List

About a year ago, J and I were returning from a trip to DC to spend a little time together and take my aunt and uncle up on their offer for us to visit them. It was around that same time that I learned that my kids had their own “bucket list” (although they never called it that) of sorts, which included only two things. 1) Ride on an airplane, and 2) See the ocean. After earning a little extra money from some summer work, J and I decided that the following summer would be a great time to take the older two kids out to DC to visit Mark and Kayo again.

Fast forward to Christmas, when Santa brought plane tickets to the kids for their trip.

Fast forward again, to July, when we had scheduled our trip. We flew out of Des Moines, with Delta. I think I ended up flying in and out of Des Moines four weeks in a row, each time on a different air carrier. Delta was great to the kids, giving them each pilot wings, and making them feel very welcome and comfortable. Delta is one of the few airlines I rode on this year that still provides both snacks and drinks. In fact, they provided a choice of snacks, as well as offering an app to download to watch movies for free on your device. Sometimes they can get a little pricy, but when I booked my tickets it was the cheapest rate, so watch for good deals.

Staying with family can have its own list of considerations when you travel, but Mark and Kayo are great hosts. I always worry about putting them out, or the kids being too loud, but it is so great to have a place to land at the end of the day that isn’t a cramped hotel room. Or to have a home cooked meal instead of eating out all week. Above and beyond that, my aunt Kayo is one of the best cooks you’ll ever meet, mixing her Japanese/Asian inspired flavors with more “traditional fare.” And Mark has outdone himself with his man cave in the basement. The kids loved watching movies, playing pinball, and A became a Dig Dug pro on the Ms. Pacman multicade.

The kids loved getting to know Mark and Kayo as much as anything else on the trip. Kayo and I enjoyed wine at dinner, and lots of adult conversation, and all of us enjoyed Uncle Mark’s evening tradition of an ice cream treat before bed.

We didn’t make it to the ocean on this trip, but we made a ton of memories!

Let's Go to Training Camp!

About a week or so ago we decided that we hadn’t been gone enough this summer and planned a quick trip to the Indianapolis for Colts training camp. I didn’t do a ton of planning prior to the trip, aside from visiting with Josh from Visit Hendricks County and perusing the VisitHendricks County website at the suggestion of fellow North Iowa Blogger Sara Broers of Travel with Sara. Hendricks county is just west of Indianapolis. Beyond that, I remembered that my sister and I had camped near Anderson several years ago when we’d gone to camp, and Googled that it was approximately an 8 hour drive. Apparently it’s a good think I didn’t make any real plans, because even the few plans that I did make changed about 1200 times!

Planning to leave at 8am from Des Moines after having spent the night at the Hyatt Place Downtown after the Midwest Rampage year-end banquet, we of course got on the road at about 9:30am. After a quick stop for coffee, we went home to grab all the bags that I had packed the previous day. Except, you know, I wasn’t as well packed as I thought, and that took a bit longer than planned.

So finally, at 12:30pm (I’d hoped to leave at 10am), with the kids picked up from grandma and the van filled with gas, we hit the road. We made it all the way to Cedar Rapids before we stopped for snacks at McDonald’s. After a few more stops for a little car sickness, we finally made it to Illinois, and didn’t look back until we hit Champaign, where we enjoyed a quick dinner at Fizoli’s and stopped for gas. We opted for Fizoli’s because while technically we can get it at home, we rarely do. Also, it’s cheap. And their breadsticks are delicious. It was a nice, quick stop until Easton fell off his chair, hit his nose, and covered both himself and J with blood in the middle of the restaurant.

About this time, we began to realize that especially with the time zone change, there was NO. WAY. We were going to make it to Anderson, IN at any sort of reasonable hour. So we back to Google we went, finding a place called Shades State Park near Crawfordsville to land for the night. We pulled in at about 10:30pm (remember that 8 hour drive? Not so much…), where they had just closed the reservation/ranger desk for the night. A great guy named Chad told us to go ahead and go in and set up, marked all the available sites on a map, and told us we could come back in the morning to pay and get registered. So glad “Iowa nice” is actually true of the entire Midwest.

We almost set up the tent in record time (a task we had not undertaken for like 4 years), but unfortunately, a pole was broken. So my fabulous husband channeled his inner MacGyver and fixed it back up, finishing the tent assembly process. We got all three kids in bed by 12:30am I think, and slept until 8:30am.

Highlights of Day 1:

• I’m not sure the kids fought even once.
• J and I managed to deal with the trips’ misfortunes without any arguments, either!
• E has quite possibly the funniest, most random personality of anyone I know. And that’s saying something. He would randomly scream out things like, “Staring contest!” or “Fireball!” from the backseat. Getting to spend time with him was a huge highlight of this trip after being away from him more than anyone else this summer. He has also learned every annoying childhood nursery and rhyme from his iPad, and put on quite a show.
• Don’t underestimate the power of “the Google” – who would have thought I could ever have such a go with the flow nature? In a million years? I’m known in my circle as the planner and the social coordinator for a reason, but this summer has definitely taught me a lot about flexibility!
• E seems to have some form of turrets syndrome – I don’t mean to make light of a real issue, it really just is the closest comparison I can give you for the visual of how random and out of the blue some of the things he yells are. For example: “Staring contest!” “Fireball!” “Bazinga!” “Stop cheating!”
• Finally, one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was A telling J that he should let the Colts know that he was (Midwest Rampage) Rookie of the Year because maybe they’d have him come play with them.