Traveling with Toddlers--Take 1

This weekend we took our first really long road trip in quite a while. Fred's boss decided he wanted the unit to go do their work somewhere "away" from post, I guess it was to make it seem more like a conference than the daily grind. Still, it was the same people, just in a different locale. To make it a bit more "conference-y" families were invited along, with a semi-formal dinner in the evening. Thus, Cassie and I got to drop Fred off and then entertain ourselves for the day.

Day 1: The ride to San Diego was less than fun. Cassie didn't want to sleep, since she'd just woken from her nap, so she fussed LOUDLY all the way down Fort Irwin Road to Barstow. 31 miles of Cassie imploring, "all done", "out", "up" and banging on the seat latch. Yippee. The usual "Old McDonald Had a Farm" and "Farmer in the Dell" did nothing for her; and peek-a-boo over the seatrest lost its appeal after about 100 yards. We stopped at Wal-Mart and made a purchase we thought was years down the road: a portable DVD player (plus 2 DVDs: The Backyardigans and Thomas the Train). The remaining three hours in the car were much more tolerable, although Fred confessed later that he was mentally singing, "We're your backyard friends, the Backyardigans..." off and on through his conference the next day.

Day 2: Cassie is really, really into animals right now, so after dropping Daddy, we were off to the "World Famous" San Diego Zoo. We were too early for the zoo, so first we circled Balboa Park and found a playground with some toddler-appropriate slides and a toddler-safe swing. Cassie loves going to the playground on Post, so I knew this would be a safe bet for entertaining her for a good chunk of time. We played, and then made for the zoo as it opened at 9:00am. San Diego was chillier than I'd expected, and after the time at the park, Cassie was shivering, so the first stop was the gift shop for a sweatshirt. The smallest they had was a 2T, so we rolled the sleeves and let it hang down to her knees. She'll be wearing it for ages. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay an admission fee for her. It was $33.00 for my admission, with the tour bus option. Plus, the sweatshirt, and because we were in the gift shop that had stuffed animals, we had to buy an animal. At least I got her down to one, not the twenty she attempted to claim at first. Choosing, of course, was a 20 minute process.

Finally, we were out into the zoo. The tour had come highly recommended by my friend Jane, our Post Chaplain's wife. She suggested it in order to get the "lay of the land". I liked it because Cassie got to see a lot of animals fairly well in a short amount of time, without my having to hike up and down the hills pushing her stroller (plus gear). She really only wanted to look at them momentarily and say "hi" and "bye bye" to each. That mission was completed! She got to see a tiger, a brown bear, a polar bear, some zebra, a lioness, a wide variety of hoofed and horned creatures as well as some giraffes and elephants. The latter two were the biggest hits, scoring a "wow" and an "oh boy" along with "hi" and "bye bye". Exiting the tram, we explored the children's section, seeing a cat called a serval, some miniature marmosets, and some meerkats. The otter was the best part of the children's section though, by far. When we walked up to the enclosure, it was curled up in a corner and some adults were calling out to the otter, cajoling it to come out onto the rock where they could see it. I lifted Cassie up to look, and the otter perked up, ran out to rock and posed dramatically for us. Cassie spent a good while giggling. We left the viewing area for a diaper change and then returned to watch it more, since Cassie had gotten such a thrill out of the otter's antics. The otter had returned to his corner, until I lifted Cassie up again to see him, and out to the rock he scampered, posing and strutting again. Must be that Cassie charisma at work.

As we strolled away from the meerkats, headed toward a food vendor, Cassie decided it was naptime, and curled up for a snooze in her stroller. Considering the cost of food at the zoo, and that Cassie would likely sleep for another hour and a half, I decided we were done with the zoo...after only 3 hours. I picked up our lunch at a McDonald's and headed back to the Navy Lodge we were lucky enough to be staying at.

Lesson learned: the child doesn't need tons of toys to enjoy herself. We may be further limiting the number of toys we have out at once for her to play with at home.

Cut to Day 3: Back to home, with numerous stops for eating, stretching and attempts at shopping. Thankful again for portable DVD systems.