Today is the first day of spring break, which means five long days of no preschool, in which I actually have to earn my keep as mother 8 hours a day and FIND THINGS FOR US TO DO. What?! I never signed up for this!! (kidding)
Itinerary for Day 1: a trip to the zoo for the FIRST PUBLIC VIEWING of the zoo’s 3+ month old tiger cub. And, as if a cute baby tiger isn’t enough of a draw, there’s also free cupcakes from Cupcake Royale… we are SO there.
First, I should tell you that, no matter how early I start the getting-ready process, we always arrive approximately 10-20 minutes late, just like clockwork. It’s really depressing. And this morning was no exception. “Hurry, CJ!” I shouted, “get your shoes! we’re going to miss the cupcakes!” Nobody can dilly-dally like my CJ; forty-five minutes later we rushed out the door.
So we got to the zoo at 11:40am, ten minutes after the official start time for the tiger viewing. I was really most concerned about the cupcakes, so we raced through the zoo and whew! spotted two tables covered with boxes and boxes of beautifully delicious cupcakes. Yummy. And yes, too good to be true. Even as we moved towards the tables, we were quickly and effectively blocked by an older woman who informed us that, no we could NOT have a cupcake. Cupcakes were to be distributed to people as they exited the tiger viewing area. Oh and by the way, the line for said tiger viewing was approximately 1.5 hours long.
Ugh. But never fear! Like any good mother should, I had a PLAN B, which involved shelling out some cash for an ice-cream at the concession stand. Yeah sure I was disappointed that we’d have to wait to see the baby tiger. But we’re at the zoo at least once a week… we’ll be seeing it soon, no doubt.
We wandered around for a couple of hours, the ice-cream steadily melting down CJ’s face, neck, arms, and coat. Sticky! Note to self: Add baby wipes to the stash of emergency items in my purse!
And, like somebody famous probably said, it’s when you’ve stopped looking that you finally find what you were looking for. Yep, after we’d given up all hope of seeing baby Tiger or eating yummy cupcakes, we walked by to see that the line had shrunk! We DID get to see baby Hadiah (Malay-Indonesian for “gift”) after just a 15 minute wait. Of course she was sleeping in the very back of her cage, so all we saw were some paws and a tail… but let me tell you, they were a CUTE pair of paws and a VERY CUTE tail. But best of all, there were STILL CUPCAKES LEFT! Sometimes the stars just line up in our favor.
So, this is my very long way of saying…
Tiger, cute (I think).
Line, long.
Cupcakes, GOOD.
Baby Hadia will be on public display daily from 11am to 2pm in the Adaptations Building. More info is available at the Woodland Park zoo website.Cupcake Royale offers dreamy concoctions of sugar, butter, and icing in Ballard, Madrona, and West Seattle (see website for details). Cupcakes at the zoo, as far as I know, were a one-time only deal in celebration of Hadia’s foray into the public eye.
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The park, which is adjacent to the Ravenna Eckstein community center, boasts a newer playground with a zipline, giant sundial, grassy play area and steps down to a delightful creek-side trail that connects to Ravenna Park.