To the City! - Day 4

Oh how I love San Fran.  I find an excuse to go there every time we're down.  :)  Loren, on the other hand, typically dreads it.  This time I had Addie on my side -- once I told her there was a zoo, we were in.  ;)  We set off early in the morning to make the most of our day.  The trip in was actually quite good (traffic wasn't horrendous) until I got some lovely news about school.

I had run in the store for some diapers and cash for the bridge, and on my return poor Loren showed me an article he found -- about University of Idaho discontinuing fee waivers for other state university employees for online and hybrid classes.  I say poor Loren because he got the wrath of my reaction to this news.  To say it lightly, I was a bit upset.  One of my top considerations in the PhD program I chose was that it was eligible for fee waiver.  With about half of it left to finish, this was definitely not good news for me.  Granted, paying full tuition for the remaining credits is still a great bargain for getting my doctoral degree, but after a number of advising issues, unclear expectations, and less than stellar classes, this was my "last straw" with the program and I have since decided to pursue a degree at Boise State again. I begin this semester (assuming I'm accepted - cross your fingers) and am currently happy with my decision -- I already have connections with great faculty in the Education department, the classes are offered in person (I'm so sick of online classes), I've heard wonderful things, and I can actually finish sooner.  Oh, and did I mention that I get to walk at BSU graduation in front of all my coworkers and students?  Very cool.  :)  But I digress, back to San Fran...

I think this may have been the first time we didn't stop at Marin to enjoy the view.  Both kids were asleep and I was still upset about the news, so we just continued on over the bridge.  We didn't even manage to get lost in San Fran.  :)  (thank you Droid Incredible!)  I did get to enjoy a beautiful ocean view on our way, making me forget my troubles, and we arrived just as the zoo opened.  It was clear, sunny, and about 60 degrees.  Perfect!

Hayden didn't even want to leave the first exhibit we found - giraffes.  He may have been happy to stay there all day.  But we finally got him to move on, and then he was off!

It's a pretty nice zoo.  Rather expensive compared to ours, but that's totally expected (I think we about spent what we spend on an annual pass here).  Got to see some new animals.

Here we are checking out the gorillas.

We rented this wagon, but managed to end up carrying both kids most of the way.  Why does that always happen?  We were pretty dead tired by the end of the day!

Hayden is at such a fun age for the zoo.  He's just fascinated by everything!  Addie is already getting bored with certain things.

One of Addie's favorites was the hippo.  She also liked the kangaroos and tiny baby turtles (SO cute!).  The baby turtles and rhinos were probably my favorite.  I think Hayden's may have been the rake (see below).  ;)

We, of course, had to ride the train.  Pretty short and you mostly see greenery, but fun for the kids.

After the train ride we had some overpriced zoo food.  We were all getting pretty tired, but wanted to hit a few more exhibits.

My little peacock.

And you know the carousel is a must.  We were literally the only people on it (and this is way bigger than Boise's).

After the carousel we checked out the playground.  The kids played a little, but both were pretty tired, so we headed off to finish our outing with the children's zoo.  Loren was also hoping to beat 5pm traffic out of town.  The children's zoo area has goats and sheep that can be pet, among other animals.

Hayden was in hog heaven after finding this rake.  I think he raked the whole zoo.  ;)

He also liked harassing the goats with it.

We had a bit of a hard time getting him away from his precious rake, but we finally did.  After that a quick stop at the bug exhibit, and we were off.  We made it out of San Fran a little after 3pm, I think, but ended up hitting some major traffic around Santa Rosa (missed our turn-off).  Once we finally arrived back at Grandma's, we were all pretty beat and ready to settle in for the night.