Yeah, That's Right. I Said SPEED.

Oh a whim, I took the boys to the zoo yesterday. We needed to renew our membership, Aaron was out for the night, and they've probably been begging me to go every day for the last 57 days straight, so I just threw caution to the wind and away we went, Peter, Paul & Mary style.

On the way there, I momentarily worried that we'd headed out too late, that maybe we wouldn't have quite enough time to truly enjoy ourselves. But when we got there, I remembered, oh yes. Going to the zoo with my kids is like going to the zoo with a couple of speed-freaks. You think I'm joking, but I'm not.

For starters, we run the zoo. We don't walk it. Which is ok, because, it counts as cardio when done that way. You haven't really experienced the 'Unseen World" until you've done it at breakneck speed. Did you miss that tarantula behind the bark? Too bad. You'll have to come back with a couple of slowpokes later.


We so DO NOT have time to take this picture mom!

On top of the running, there's a lot of shouting, a lot of serious map-consulting. I imagine from afar the three of us probably look like a bit like some sort of intense amazing-race-family-team screaming and yelling about where we should go next and how we should get there and no there is no way there is going to be enough time to stop by the gift shop. Usually at least one of us is not getting their way and so you can also count of a little bit or ground-rolling and name calling too.



We lapped quite a few people more than once on our visit yesterday. One guy in particular seemed to be either horrified or fascinated, or maybe even both, by our technique. Every time we passed him and his companion he chuckled and stared in our direction, always attempting to make some sort of comment.

On our third pass I finally said "We do the zoo on speed." as we ran by. "Oh, we do the zoo on boredom!" he responded. As the we continued to run on ahead, I heard him launch into a in-depth discussion on the 'viciousness of owls'. Yeah, definitely doing the zoo on boredom....

The only thing we slowed down for was the goats, and frankly that was a bit freaky. I'd begun to wonder if maybe we'd run so fast we'd some how time- traveled into the future and now goats were in charge. The petting zoo was empty, and when the goats caught wind of our entrance they all started walking toward us. I silently panicked, thinking - are they trying to tell me something? Is there a chip in my brain they're trying to make contact with? Nope, turns out they just wanted to eat our maps.



The goats, trying to communicate. Proof that I'm not quite as crazy as you might think.


And then, as quickly as it began, our time was over, the zoo was closing and we were getting kicked out. We were exhausted, and I was a little out of of breath. But I suggest you try it sometime, seeing the Zoo in fast-forward. Especially if its your millionth or so visit or if you're looking for an experience that provides both fitness AND education. It certainly helps to shake things up a little...