HUMAN ZOO OF SATURDAY PARKING

I joined the human zoo on Saturday, a clear sky, warm weather, Oregon Zoo day with wife, kids, and grandkids.

We weren’t alone.

By 11 o’clock Lots A, B, C were all full.

Was I flashing back to past parking nightmares?

Maybe a little after driving a thousand miles in England, but I had a plan.

No parking spaces in urban England struck fear into my driving heart.

That fear was compounded by the paying system.

Looking for a spot that didn’t exist at the Zoo wasn’t as alarming since I knew the land.

I used to ride my bike up through Washington Park, run the trails, and the familiarity came in handy yesterday.

After checking the lots I drove up past the Vietnam Memorial and wound around on Knights Blvd until I came to the Hoyt Arboretum up on Fairview.

It’s a two lane road with wide shoulders and a line of cars pulled over on both sides.

So I pulled over and locked up and started the walk back.

It seemed like a long walk back on the road, but I took the first right turn down a huge wooden stairway built into a steep hill that ended in a marked trail complex.

 

Communication Works Again

The plan was to meet the kids and baby at the front of the Zoo, so I dropped my wife off to go park.

On the way back on the trails I called my kid to check on his progress. He’d just been up to the T-bone stop sign of Knights and Fairmont and U-turned.

I watched from the woods while he drove past like a surveillance case.

He stopped while I carefully side-stepped down the hillside off the trail and hopped into the front seat with baby and momma in back.

We dropped them off with my girl and headed back up to Fairmont.

For the second time I walked down the huge staircase, took a right trail, and aimed for the zoo.

Maybe a ten minute walk with the shortcuts.

Now you may ask, ‘David, did you know that Saturday is crowded as hell at the Zoo because that’s when everybody who works all week takes their wife and kids?’

Yes, I do know that. And I also know it’s not healthy to seize up when you get out of your comfort zone, so you need to be a man and woman of the people.

There was the Zoo, and the human zoo, and we were all a part of it.

It feels great seeing loved ones in that context. Just another young family with a toddler, except they were my young family.

Even better? I’ve got two young families. It’s a beautiful thing.

 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion At The Zoo

All of the animals in tho zoo are jumping up and down for you, for me, for everyone.

No zoo patron complained that the animals weren’t lively enough for their taste and tried to get their money back.

It’s not cheap, but the Zoo works to reach out.

We were there nearly four hours in the harmony of animal fans.

Everyone in the place had come for the same reason, to see real animals.

Some of gates and enclosures has a Jurassic Park feel, which made it even more exciting.

Like all young families, mine had a stroller that doubled as a survival wagon loaded with food and drinks and extra clothes.

We cruised in after the parking hike, walked around, found a table in the shade for a Jimmy John’s lunch from the wagon, then off to the elephants.

While tipping my hat to animal rights folks, the only place I’m seeing an elephant in real life is in a zoo.

Is that important to me? It is when I’m with my group showing what a Granddad can do.

Which is giving the kids a break by carrying baby, pushing the stroller, not that they asked.

I’m more of a messenger with, “I’ll push the stroller,” and, “I’ll carry the baby.”

It’s not a question. Does that make me a Type-A?

 

 

The value of seeing the critters in real time surrounded by the human zoo, instead of a picture?

You tell me.

Elephant and baby while I’m holding a baby?

Priceless.

The kid and I left the zoo for the cars and headed up, with a tour of the Vietnam Memorial along the way.

The age of the names on the wall  aren’t listed, but looking back, I don’t know how parents coped with losing their kids at nineteen, or twenty-nine.

I thought about it while tromping up the long, steep, stairway to the cars with mine.