This is the kind of cooperation I get around here. Sam was looking SO bored waiting for me to get ready, that I had to delay even further to get a picture of the expression on her face. However, as soon as she saw the camera, THIS is what I got.
Sam's been begging for a long time to go to the zoo in Portland, the Washington Park Zoo, again. I never thought she was all that crazy about the animals, but regardless of how she really feels about them, she does enjoy going to the zoo.
I've made my feelings about driving to Portland, let alone driving IN Portland, quite clear. I only drive to the airport, and then only if I can't sucker someone else into doing it. But with Mick home, I thought it would be an ideal time to cater to this one whim of Sam's. Plus, the second Tuesday of every month is cheap day at the zoo--$2.00 admission.
I should have known. I really should have known. If we were going to go, we should have been in the car and down the road by 7:00 a.m. Yes, that does make it a little less appealing. However, consider the alternative. Consider our reality.
It takes a good hour and a half to get there. Long before the zoo exit, the cars in that lane slow to a crawl, and then to a stop. Very, very slow going. There is a sign telling us what exit to take for the zoo shuttle. Let me repeat that, ZOO SHUTTLE.
We've never actually been able to park in the zoo parking lot in any of our previous trips to the zoo, so we didn't think much of this. Just, oh, well...guess we'll be on the shuttle again. We, along with a long caravan of cars, drove through one lot, to find it closed. We continued on to the next lot and found it full. Then we drove to the third and last location only to find everything FULL, FULL, FULL.
There was NOWHERE to park ANYWHERE, not ANYWHERE! This was after traveling for at least two hours or more now with a severely autistic child who has her heart set on visiting the zoo. Any parent of an autistic child immediately recognizes this as a LIVING NIGHTMARE.
Now we don't know what to do so we just drive around for awhile APOLOGIZING to our child who thinks that talk is cheap. I happen to agree with her.
What is not cheap is our solution. Had I not been so determined to be cheap, we would have gone to the zoo on a different day and paid full price--about a total of $36. Here I wanted to get in for $8 and so did everyone else apparently. The solution? OMSI ( Oregon Museum of Science and Industry).
Miranda had never been and this kind of place is right up her alley. We figured there would be enough there to amuse Sam a little. Admission? Well, we purchased a combo ticket which allowed us into the museum, one movie at the IMAX theater, and one show at the Planetarium. So admission was $82. Yes, that's right, that's what I said, $82. Instead of $8.
The Imax theater was about as cool as anything I've ever been to. Disregard the fact that Mick and I both drifted off to sleep. It was no reflection on the experience. The screen is domed and the equivalent of five stories high. Walking in the aisles to one's seat gives a feeling of vertigo, a fear of suddenly falling into the bottom of the theater. The movie was great, an underwater flick shot off the southern coast of South Africa. Very educational. Didn't mean to sleep. It just seems to be something that happens if I blink too slowly.
Planetarium? I picked the wrong event and it was kind of a snore. Luckily, it was only a half hour snore. Surprisingly, I didn't fall asleep in the Planetarium.
Honestly, we rushed through the museum. Miranda probably could have spent much more time checking stuff out, but since I had no desire to return to a high school science class and experiment with stuff, my attention span could only rival Sam's. Actually, I think Sam's was longer.
Our outing ended in Salem at Red Robin, making Sam a happy camper. It was unreasonably cold in there which made only Mick happy and they were unusually slow which made none of us happy. Particularly Louise and Zeus, who not only felt abandoned by that point, but starved as well.
I assure you, they didn't starve and they survived their ordeal. As did we. I learned a lesson, too. If you're going to be cheap, you have to get up REALLY early to get the jump on all the other cheap people. Live and learn.
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