What do you get for three hours at the zoo?

It was members night at the zoo last night which I thought meant would be a nice quiet almost private tour of the zoo. Boy, was I wrong - way wrong. Turns out almost every family in the state is a member of the zoo and decided to take advantage of the so called private tour.

We arrived at the zoo at a little before six, just in time to wait with everyone else and their siblings - great start. As soon as we get in the zoo Murphy notices that the TRAIN IS RUNNING!!!! So we must ride it asap - which is actually smart because since it is an old train you never know when the sign that says "Train Closed Check Back Soon" will go up. So we ride the train which seems to have a new engine that actually turned the 5 minute ride into a 2.5 minute ride - blink and your done.

So we meandered down the path to where the new carousel ride was, stopping along the way to see the white crocodile (very cool). When we are hit with more people than be in one place - seriously probably 100+ people waiting in line to get tickets for the carousel. Whew - well instead we decide to check out the bird show that is about 15 minutes away from starting and just happens to be next door. Murphy is getting really fidgety about this time I mean who comes to the zoo to SIT? So the show finally starts and they announce that because the birds (people eating hawks) fly really close to the audiences head that you should NOT stand up. Ok we can handle this. We are sitting there about 5 minutes into the show when Murphy starts dancing - the potty dance. So we walk really lowly up the steps to the back so as not to get eaten when the nice gentleman guarding the gate tells us that once we go out we can't come back in (because of the whole people eating hawks thing) so I wave Josh out since we won't be able to go back in and am explaining to Murphy as this is happening that we won't be able to go back when tantrum ensues - big tantrum with big tears tantrum - starts yelling about how he can wait to go to the bathroom after the show ends (only problem is we are now outside the magic gate that the nice gentleman is guarding with no way back in) 10 minute tantrum and potty break later we finally meet in the middle with watching the rest of the show outside the gate.

So of course there is still the matter of the carousel ride and the very long line. So Josh the fantastic dad that he is waited in line while we finished watching the bird show from the outside. After the bird show ended we walk over to see how much longer dad has in line just to find out he has a LONG time left. So Murphy and I walk over to get some food which took at least 45 minutes and two tantrums. Walk back just in time to jump on the newest kid magnet at the zoo and find our perfect seats (Murphy a Large Gorilla and a small rhino for mom - and dad stood to make sure that Murphy did not fall off the large gorilla). And guess what - the carousel went around 2 times - probably less than 60 seconds and the ride was over.

Wow three hours and two very tired parents. I think we might skip the exclusive members night next year and opt for any given day of the year instead.