Yesterday, Luis and I met Stacey (Bliss) Densberger and her children Connor (4 yr) and Ethan (3 yr) at the Brevard County Zoo. Stacey is my oldest non-family friend; we met in 10th grade in Orange Park, FL (in 1989 -almost 20 years ago!).
It was a typical hot, humid Florida day and we were sweaty about 3 minutes after entering the park! The zoo was small, but was lots of fun. As Stacey said, zoos of our childhood were concrete jungles with animals trapped in small exhibits. But the Brevard County Zoo was like a walk through the jungle/forest. Animals were close up but all seemed to be in their natural habitat.
We saw about a dozen zoo-workers out on the paths, holding animals for children to see up close. 
Unfortunately, they mostly had snakes (which I don't care for at all). None the less, I encouraged Luis to get up close to the snakes and pet them. He seemed intrigued by their texture and the way they moved. There were also a few lizards/iguanas (is the second a subset of the first?), but Luis wasn't so interested in those.
Unfortunately, they mostly had snakes (which I don't care for at all). None the less, I encouraged Luis to get up close to the snakes and pet them. He seemed intrigued by their texture and the way they moved. There were also a few lizards/iguanas (is the second a subset of the first?), but Luis wasn't so interested in those.
There were about 6 places where you could feed the animals The very best was feeding crackers to the giraffes. It was mostly kids who fed the crackers to the giraffes - and most of them were afraid of the tongue (which can extend beyond the teeth something like 18"!). Luis, however, had no fear. He seemed to delight in feeding the crackers to the giraffes. At $1 per cracker, the zoo, I'm sure, delighted in Luis's delight as well.
They also have a small train ride that lets you see some animals (gazelle, ostrich, rhino, giraffe, and some birds) much closer than the fences allow. Luis has not been bitten by the train craze and was only mildly interested in it. 
Just before we stopped for lunch, Luis threw the biggest tantrum of his short 18-month-life. I suspect it was brought on by hunger, heat and tiredness. But in the end, all I could do was sit next to him as he cried and flailed on the concrete walk in front of the snack bar. I felt really bad for Luis who seemed unable to express his feelings or explain his needs. And I was frustrated by not being able to help. But my main memory of that torturous 20 minutes was the kind, sympathetic looks and comments I got from other moms - not a single judgemental stare.
Luis crashed as soon as we got back in the car -about 1:30. He slept all the way home. We eventually woke him up at 4:30.
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