Out of the Hand/Foot/Mouth of Babes

It had finally arrived. It was the day we were going to visit the Toledo Zoo, the destination which had spawned the idea for kid weekend in Toledo. Zhak and Kaden (and Faith, too!) just love zoos and were excited to see what is touted as one of the country’s finest. Unfortunately, it was touch and go as to whether we’d even make it there.

Zhak had been telling us for the past few days that his mouth hurt. When he woke up this A.M. with hands covered in a rash, Deni knew something was awry. A detour to the local med center was definitely in order, but her insurance company first needed approval from her pediatrician back home. While awaiting a return call from the doc, we telephoned our other sister Karen. Over the past decade plus she’s been through every childhood disease you can imagine and is a walking medical encyclopedia of kid ailments of all kinds. In less time than it took us to even say hand, foot and mouth disease, she had suspected Zhak’s problem was the common viral illness of infants and children. Sure enough, when Deni finally spoke with Zhak’s doctor, he confirmed Karen’s diagnosis. Since no specific treatment is really available, a trip to the med center would not be necessary. While the affliction is contagious, it is most often contracted by young children. Once they are exposed to it, they likely will not become infected again. Since we all had been in close contact for the past several days, if anything was going to result from this it had already been put in motion. Good hygiene was stepped up a notch, and sharing food and/or utensils kyboshed. Other than that, he assured us we were good to go. So go we did!

The Toledo Zoo began in 1900 with a single woodchuck donated to Walbridge Park. After organization of the Toledo Zoo Society between 1905 and 1910, it grew from there. Many of the original buildings were built by the Works Progress Administration and are still in use today.

Because the zoo is on the reciprocal list of our John Ball Park Zoo at home, Deni’s family membership afforded them, Faith and one guest free admission. Mark and I split the cost of the other adult ticket and we were on our way.

Africa was our first stop

mainly because it featured a Safari Railway and Kaden is obsessed (to put to mildly) with all things train. Had we not ridden at the onset, we would have likely heard, “I want to ride the train!” every ten minutes.

So we hopped aboard to check out zebras, giraffes and wildebeest.

We then followed the pedestrian walkway over SR 25 to the main exhibits.

It was not only Sunday, but Fisher-Price Play Weekend as well. The place was crowded and, well, a zoo! It was also hot, hot, hot. Many of the animals had sought refuge in the shade and were hard to locate. But we saw rhinos

And elephants

And camels, oh my!

Under his circumstances, Zhak was not in the best of spirits. Oy vey! While he took a time-out with Deni, the rest of us ventured on. At least Kaden was happy!

We saw hippopotami at the Hippoquarium, an underwater viewing exhibit which was the first of its kind in the world.

In the Reptile House we saw a neat Panther Chameleon

a sinister-looking alligator

and “Look Mommy! That turtle is climbing on top of the other turtle!”

Um, yeah. Apologies to all you voyeurs … no photo of that one.

My favorite place was the aquarium.

Housing 253 different species with 2,800 actual animals in the exhibit, it was one of the most diverse collections of zoo-aquarium in the United States. And it was air conditioned!

Before heading home we stopped to see Siku, the only polar bear cub in a U.S. zoo, who was under careful watch of his mom.  Polar bears are so cool!

In all honesty, I wasn’t really impressed. I admittedly have little to no patience when you combine mobs of people, oppressive heat and six-year-old meltdowns. The kids had a great time, though, which was our main objective. Mission accomplished!