End of the Line Reward

It was an incredibly gorgeous day in St. Louis yesterday; in fact, the temperature broke a 107 year old record. Knowing that Mother Nature will soon make us pay for the unseasonably warm weather, we loaded in the car to spend the day at the zoo. Us and everyone else in the city. The crowds resulted in lines at places where we normally do not have to wait. The end of the line rewards varied from welcome to, well, read on and see for yourself.

There was a line for the carousel, which we usually hop right on. We got lucky, though, and just missed getting on so that put us at the front of the line for the next go around. It doesn’t take much circular motion to have me reeling from motion sickness, so I sat the ride out. I sat on a bench waiting to catch a glimpse of John and the boys in their first rotation. I spotted them quickly, and Luke tried to tell me what animal he chose by screaming really fast over yelling kids and carousel music. I heard, “I got a blah blah blah.”

Being the smart boy that he is, he figured out I wouldn’t be able to hear a whole sentence before the carousel rotated him out of ear shot so he changed tactics.

“I,” turn, turn, turn, “got,” turn, turn, turn, “a,” turn, turn, turn, “River,” turn, turn, turn, “Otter.” It took him most of the ride to get that sentence out.

We rode the train at the end of the day when we were too tired to walk anymore. The line at the train was very long, and not many people were getting off at our station. It took three trains before we were able to get on. Our line progression went something like this:

First 5 minutes – Boys wait patiently, looking around at the tracks, station, and other people.

Next 5 minutes – Boys begin playing with line divider chains, swinging them, hanging on them, sitting on them, and limbo-ing under them.

Next 2 minutes – Boys argue over who gets to play with which chain.

Next 3 minutes – Boys get separated by parents, and become too limp and boneless to stand.

Next 3 minutes – Boys focus their efforts on a new target, mommy, and begin tickling, kicking, biting and pulling on draw strings until mommy is unable to breath.

Next 2 minutes – Mommy contemplates her decision to stand in a 20 minute line at the zoo and wonders how much of a scene it would make if she picked up her two kids and carried them kicking and screaming to the car. The train comes before I have to find out.

The train ride doesn’t offer much in the way of animal viewing, but it gave me a chance to sit and rest and for my body to repair some of the damage that had been inflicted on it while waiting in line. Had we not been on the train, I wouldn't have gotten to rest. But had we not stood in line for the train, I wouldn't have needed to rest. It's a conundrum.

Our most surprising end of the line reward came at the chimpanzee habitat. We waited behind a crowd for our turn to approach the glass and watch the chimpanzees in a natural habitat. When it came to be our turn, we approached the glass and feasted our eyes on this:

Natural indeed.