Journey to our children: Maryland Zoo

Friday, May 20, 2011

Maryland Zoo

Nadia's first pair of rainboots!

After spending time on the phone with a couple of allergist offices this morning, the kids and I left to pick Paul up at the hotel he's been at this week. The allergist who has already seen Ian at first said the soonest we could come back was June 18th. I said we'd be calling other allergists as we couldn't wait that long. She said this is their busiest time of year. I made an appointment for May 31 with a CHOP allergist. I picked that date because Ian will be seeing an ENT that same day. The offices were about 30 minutes apart from each other, but they're about 2.5 hours from home so I was grateful to think I could do them on one trip. While we were driving to Baltimore my mom called me to tell me that the allergist Ian had already seen called back and said we could have a 1pm appt today (obviously wouldn't work) or Tuesday afternoon. I have to say it was a tough decision for me. If we waited until May 31st that would save me 5 hours of driving. Paul said I shouldn't let that be the decision maker. The two advantages to going on May 24th are #1 we start the testing process a week sooner and #2 he can be seen by an allergist who has already seen him before rather than switching to a different allergist. So I'll be driving to the Philadelphia area once a week the next 3 weeks -allergist, ENT, and then urological surgery. I need to reschedule Nadia's dentist appointment which is currently scheduled for Tuesday morning. You'd think there wouldn't be any conflict between a 10:00am dentist appointment and a 1:20pm allergist appointment, but it would be cutting it too close since there is a 2.5 hour drive involved.

I was worried about it raining while we were at the zoo as it's been raining on and off every single day this week, but the rain held off while we were there. We spent about 2.5 hours exploring the zoo in Baltimore. You could spend a fortune there if you wanted if you paid to ride the train, carousel, camel, etc. If the kids were older I would have paid for them to ride the camel ($5) and feed the giraffe ($2), but it didn't seem to make sense at this stage. Ian was free, and we received a 50% discount for Nadia, Paul, and I because of our Philadelphia Zoo membership. I think Ian's favorite animals were the giraffes and penguins. He didn't get as excited as he did at the Philly zoo. I think part of that was because some animals (such as the lions) came up right close to the glass at that zoo, which he loved. We had a good time, and I look forward to taking the kids to zoos for many years to come. One thing that Nadia said which cracked me up was while we were looking at the elephants she asked me if we were going to see Goliath. LOL! I tried to explain to her that Goliath (as in the giant who fought David) wouldn't be in a zoo. You never know what a 2 year old will say, ha ha! Nadia loved the tram ride back to the parking lot. That was a highlight for her. Ian was slept through the polar bear exhibit and the tram ride. One disadvantage of going to a zoo on a Friday in May is that the zoo was absolutely swamped with kids there on a field trip. It would have been a little easier for the kids to see the animals if the place wasn't so crowded. We'll have to keep that in mind in the future.