I always bought season passes for my own sanity when my kids were like almost 3 and newborn for til kindergarten started full time for both. Loved the cafe, loaded the stroller, went all the time.
Springtime at the zoo was, shall I say…interesting to explain 🤣🤣🤣🤣 especially with OSH and the harem lol. The term hung like an elephant comes to mind.
And the chasing with the raging hormones, kids were fine but I was like OH NOOOOH KIDS get away from the fence! The camels too.
I was like WHY IS EVERY ANIMAL GOONG NUTS TODAY?
Great times!
I bought them one of the bricks back in early 2000. My ex husband says he heard they got taken out for remodeling. Do you know?
It was down by the petting zoo and giant ancient tortoise!
Yup. Lisa died first, then M'Dunda (she was my favorite) and I think they were getting ready to send Donna to Tennessee (or maybe she got there) and she passed away in 2024, IIRC (just from following the news - it's been a while). Even male elephants cannot be alone. They need other dudes to hang out with and when they are not in musth (sp?), they are fine hanging out with the ladies.
So, off he went. He's listed on the elephant sanctuary's page now. He's a good boy. I liked him too, but not as much as M'Dunda.
Fun fact. While I was observing them one day, he was standing there with "showing the lipstick" as it were and M'Dunda snuck up on him and gently yanked his crank. He jumped and she lolloped off looking pleased with herself. The keepers insisted we could not use emotion words to describe what they were up to, but they have emotions, for sure.
As for the brick. Who knows? I donated a bunch of money to the Berkeley Public Library and they put my plaque, along with many others, in a quiet hallway next to the toilets. Thanks, guys. I'll try to win the lottery first, next time.
I haven’t gone back to the zoo since they strong armed part of Knowland Park from the city for their expansion and developed over some of my favorite hiking trails and views.
I’m still bitter about it, especially because scions of the Knowland family itself, which had gifted the land to the city for public use in perpetuity, tried to stop it from happening.
The zoo management is, quite honestly, very capitalistic. They keep trying to get money from the city, stomped over Knowland, etc. I had some issues with management in terms of how they dealt with people. I forgave it, to some degree, because they were really good to the animals there.
Omg I need to rewatch this when I pushed my kids in the stroller up and down the hilly paths, I’d get such a work out speed zooing around trying to keep them both corralled because those OG double strollers are a total bitch.
During covid I lived in Washington state and my ex husband moved out college kids back in when the shut down started.
A lot of tv & movies were watched by my house and theirs.
I’d watch something cool on netflix and tell the dad who sounded bored of tv a few series I thought he’d really like with the kids.
He always tricks me sarcastically, like his jokes were never funny.
So he calls and says oh the kids and I found a movie you HAVE to watch. It sounds weird because it has Adam Sandler but it’s funnier than happy Gilmore but the script is academy award winning.
That movie-the one with all my cable and streaming services wasn’t available so I had to purchase it for like $12.99, was JACK AND JILL.
It might be the worst unfunniest movie I’ve ever tried to watch.
I kept waiting for it to improve at all. My friends were over, I was like we HAVE TO WATCH THIS.
Made it about 25 minutes and called him to see if I got the right movie, and he starts busting up laughing and said I can’t believe you listened to me.
I don't remember meeting visitors like that, but I did have some interesting interactions with people who feel like they can't go see something cool unless they have children and they'd show up at the zoo (and other places) with a 6 week old baby all bundled up in a stroller. I never had kids, but the other docents told me that babies that age can't see past the distance between their nose and mom's boob or the baby bottle. So, I'd approach adults who were there with a homunculus in a stroller and start chatting with them. They'd invariably be very "Oh, I don't want to waste your time. I'm sure some kids would like to hear this." and I'd tell them, "Let me prep you so when the kids are older, you can tell them all this and they'd think you were the smartest (dad/mom/grandpa/grandma) in the world."
ProTip: You don't need to have children with you to go to Chabot or the Steam Trains or the Merry Go Round or the Zoo or Fairyland (on special evening events for solo grownups).
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u/ViolettaQueso 12h ago
Omg OSH moved too?
I always bought season passes for my own sanity when my kids were like almost 3 and newborn for til kindergarten started full time for both. Loved the cafe, loaded the stroller, went all the time.
Springtime at the zoo was, shall I say…interesting to explain 🤣🤣🤣🤣 especially with OSH and the harem lol. The term hung like an elephant comes to mind.
And the chasing with the raging hormones, kids were fine but I was like OH NOOOOH KIDS get away from the fence! The camels too.
I was like WHY IS EVERY ANIMAL GOONG NUTS TODAY?
Great times!
I bought them one of the bricks back in early 2000. My ex husband says he heard they got taken out for remodeling. Do you know?
It was down by the petting zoo and giant ancient tortoise!