A married dad alone with his daughter is an atypical sight at the Phoenix Zoo, but now I know the best way to pickup MILFs, if ever life takes such a wrong turn. I was planning all week on a morning zoo trip with just the two of us, and couldn’t wait for my hot and unpleasant road ride to end. Seeing a dead javalina on the roadside climbing Usery Pass set the wrong tone, but G’s enthusiasm quickly did away with that.

The zoo in summer is much more about swimming than looking at animals for G. In fact, the zoo in general is much more about playing and the merry-go-round than looking at animals.   G finds animals in the abstract to be pretty cool, where they are fluffy and cuddly and play games with her, but when they mostly sit and scratch and nibble slowly and she can’t climb on them, she quickly finds more engaging uses for her zoo time.   Its all good, after 3 hours she was wiped out, and Beckie had the morning to herself.

first stop: the water playground!

She was very excited to see the wallaby, but the wallaby playground was much more interesting

she dubbed this a ‘cactus slide’ – i was impressed she figured it out without any help

All morning she wanted to see the goats at the petting zoo, but when we got there she was tired and hot and the smell of goat pee put her off.   We did get to pet a big black quarter horse (background of the pic).   She sat on my shoulders to scratch its face, and when it leaned in to sniff us and knocked its giant head against mine I realized 1) how awful that scene from the Godfather would be waking up with 30 lbs and 3 feet of bloody horse head in your bed, and 2) 30 lbs and 3 feet of G and 30 lbs and 3 feet of horse head were too much to support on my shoulders.   Needless to say, pics were not taken.

the WaterCave, G’s favorite spot.   I was like the only adult playing with the kids.  *shrug* Its hot out!

A trip to the zoo is not complete without the merry-go-round.   Note baby dinosaur carefully strapped in