Fieldtrip - National Zoo

November 9, 2011. On a beautiful Wednesday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Lincoln's class, the Butterfly Fish to the National Zoo. We all rode the school bus together and arrived at the zoo around 10am. And what an exciting visit - perhaps the most exciting trip I have ever had to the zoo. We practically had the zoo to ourselves, the weather was comfortable, the animals were active and in the mood to show off, and I was with my Lincoln. The highlight of the trip for me was seeing the orangutan climb the tower outside and trapeze across the cables above our heads. I have always wanted to see that and frankly up until this day didn't actually believe the orangutans used the cables. It was super cool and luckily no one got pooped on. There was a zookeeper warning everyone (very dramatically I might add) to move back from the drop zone. Sadly Lincoln misinterpreted her warnings to mean that the orangutan was going to jump down. He quickly went from being very happy and interested to screaming and running the other direction to the point I had to run to get him. All in all, everyone had a great time, but boy was it stressful to be responsible for two other children in addition to my own. Lincoln, Dylan, and Selma were my buddies for the trip, and by the time I actually got back to work around 2pm I had a splitting headache from the apparent tension I had in association with ensuring that I didn't lose someone. I don't know how these teachers regularly do it.

Lincoln's class - the Butterfly Fish with Ms. Sandy.

Enjoying a picnic lunch. Lincoln's lunch could have appeared on the food pyramid it was so healthy and balanced, but he opted to munch on his strawberries and then eat Dylan's extra chips. So much for putting on ares about feeding my kid healthy.

Recovering from the orangutan scare.

Pretending to sleep on the bus ride home.

Actually sleeping on the bus ride home.