There And Back Again

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After leaving the NJ/NYC area, we decided to break the drive home in half and spend another few hours of fun at the Pittsburgh Zoo.  After arriving at our hotel at 2.30AM (or was it 3.30?  “Jill” the obviously feminine GPS was an hour slow), I got a few hours of sleep.  The trek to the zoo AGAIN was met with detours and misdirection.  We stopped at a police station and parked in a towing spot.  Thank goodness Chris & Lisa returned to the van before we were given notice.  Once again, Chris seemed to ignore Jill’s directions to get us to the zoo.  We stopped at a road side dairy treat where they had the largest and HOTTEST fish sandwich ever.  It was so hot that I had to let it cool a few minutes,  but it was good.

The Pittsburgh Zoo was in my opinion the best of the three.  The exhibits were all extraordinary and entertaining.  The African elephants were a special treat especially seeing the babies.  A keeper was in the area with the 4 or five elephants and looked right at home.

The aquarium featured more jellyfish (I think Akron’s jelly exhibit was better), HUGE (relative) pot-bellied seahorses, and penguins.  My favorite exhibit was the sea lions on display.  The trainers made them perform for their food and it was amazing to see the animals wave, leap out of the water, bark, and perform other eye-catching feats.

There was also a mole-rat tunnel area for the little ones to play in.  Taylor and Sammie made a new friend inside the maze of tunnels.  Little Disney was more apprehensive about starting off but once she did, it took some time to get her out.  The park was closed by the time we got her out.  But we had to stop by the sea lions one last time.

Then, it was back on the road for the final leg of the journey.  We stopped in Elyria for dinner and stopped at Wal-Mart (there is no escaping it!!!!).  Funny thing, this Wal-Mart was still a regular store.  I had thought that all the old stores were becoming Super Centers… bigger and better, right?  Well…

We returned from our trip around 12:00 Tuesday morning.  Once again, I had an absolutely fabulous time in my role of Manny.  Thank you Chris and Lisa for having me.  Thank you Taylor, Sammie, Disney, and little Beeber.  I was so proud of the four of you.  There were a few moments when most kids would have been pulling their hair out, but you were all wonderful.  The end of this fantastic voyage.  Much too quick but memories to last a lifetime.  Be sure to check out taylhis‘ blog for her own journal of the trip.  I found that I had to make one adjustment to my own.  HEHE

10 thoughts on “There And Back Again”

  1. Thanks for the comments about the Pittsburgh Zoo. What kind of GPS do you have? The top of your blog was cut off. If your GPS gave you the wrong directions, we will try to contact the company. Thanks again, and I’m glad you liked the Pittsburgh Zoo.

  2. Connie… I think with all the construction happening, it was difficult for it to get a good signal. I’m not sure what type of GPS it is (it was my friends’ who was driving. But you can follow the link to taylhis’ much more indepth diary of our entire trip. And the zoo IS phenomenal.

  3. I see you both commented about the Walmart 😀

    The one by me isn’t a supercenter either, but they have no room for one without closing down the Sam’s Club next door, so I guess it’s not quite by choice that it’s still an ordinary Walmart.

  4. The GPS is a Mio. It WAS the construction that messed it up. Thanks so much for linking to my blog so many times. It was fun to read yours as well. Thanks for a great trip and helping so much with the kids! But wait, moments when the kids would have been pulling their hair out? How about the adults?!? Hehe – great trip, thanks for coming!

  5. Yes, there were a few moments when some adults would have been pulling their hair out, too. Hope my links made up for being so rude in blogging all about the trip so quickly. I adore spending quality time in my role as Manny.

  6. Aw…. I wouldn’t say it was rude, it was just frustrating for me – goodness knows I WANTED to blog about it all right away, I just could not!

  7. Ok… we’ll just call it “bad form” since I was the hired Manny and not mention it any more. 😀

  8. ok… but I’m not making any promises… it might be fun for chiding once in a while… besides, we all know how my better half has trouble letting certain jokes go – is this on par with spizerinctum?

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