The New Zoo Review

Before I went to Virginia for my brother Mason's graduation from high school (I'll include a bit about that as soon as he sends me some pictures), Wendy and I took Kiernan to the Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens. We have been to our own zoo here in Los Angeles a number of times, but have heard from other parents that the zoo in Santa Barbara is really something to see, so we decided to make a road trip. I had labored under the impression that this trip was going to take upwards of three hours, for some reason, but when I looked up directions on Google Maps (Google Maps is the best, true that, double-true) I found that the drive was only going to take slightly more than an hour.

We got a semi-early start one Saturday morning, figuring that Kiernan would take his nap in the car on the way up, and that would afford us an uninterrupted time at the zoo. What ended up happening was that he did not fall asleep until we were ten minutes away from the zoo. In point of fact, his mother started falling asleep before he did. So, when we got to the zoo we just decided to let him sleep for another thirty minutes before starting our day. Really, this was just for him. For his well-being.

Keep in mind, the picture to the right is from the beginning of our zoo adventure.

About forty minutes after this picture was taken, Kiernan opened his eyes, stretched, and signaled he was ready for the zoo. Another half an hour and his mother did the same. We headed on in, finding that our membership card to the L.A. Zoo entitled us to half off admission. This was a minor disappointment as we had been told it would get us in for free. Still, only having to pay half is better than nothing.

It was immediately apparent that this zoo experience was going to be different than our experiences visiting the zoo in Los Angeles. This is a bit unfair to L.A. because the times we have gone there, the zoo has been undergoing massive renovations. Because of this it seems that you walk for miles without ever seeing an animal, instead seeing huge plywood barriers with signs that promise you someday will get to see an animal. Whenever I'm there I am constantly reminded of that scene in Jurassic Park when the scientists and kids are first sent out into the park and there is nary a dinosaur to be seen. Jeff Goldblum's character leans up to the in-car camera and says, "Now eventually you might have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right? Hello? Yes?"

The first thing that occurred to me as we made our way into the zoo in Santa Barbara was that this zoo felt more, well, alive, than almost any other zoo I have visited. It felt more intimate. The animals were closer, easier to see because of the layout of the park and the design of the exhibits. In addition to this, the animals all seemed to be out and about on this day. Maybe it was the nature of the day, slightly overcast and mildly warm. Or maybe it was just the nature of the climate in Santa Barbara, which is more moderate than here in Los Angeles. I mean, if I were a snow leopard living in the blast furnace heat of the San Fernando Valley, I'd probably spend all my time napping in the shade far away from prying eyes, too. The Santa Barbara zoo is right by the ocean, as well. We took a train ride around the park and could see the beach from the train.

[The picture to the left is from the train ride. I just love how Kiernan looks, sitting on his mother's lap, with his little legs propped up on the railing of the train car.]

One of the first places we went was into the Eeeww! House. The Eeeww! House holds the creepy crawlies. Spiders and snakes and scorpions. They are in wonderfully creative little habitat displays that you view through small little plexiglass covered openings. For instance, the display holding the black widow spider was a simple 'S' shaped pipe in a box that looked like the cabinet under the sink. Not our sink at home, mind you. Rather a family that doesn't have five hundred plastic bags and two hundred empty spaghetti sauce jars crammed into the cabinet under their sink. It was a simple, elegant little display; the black widow had built her web in one of the upper corners of the box, so you had to bend way down and crane your neck to see her.

It is suitably dark in the Eeeww! House, and at one point Wendy, who is no lover of spiders but does not mind the odd ball python, intimated that she was about to throw up because she was just too creeped out. She wandered away from the arachnoid displays and leaned down to peer into one with centipedes or Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches or something. She was looking into the little plexiglass window when all of a sudden a human hand appeared, reaching into the display from above. This, understandably, caused her to jump. I had a similar experience later when viewing a scorpion and an unseen worker started spraying a mist of water into the scorpion's little home. A very cool, very creepy place.

One of the highlights of the visit was the lion exhibit. We first saw the lions during our aforementioned trip on the train, the male perched on one enormous boulder and the female on another, both looking majestic and unconcerned. We saw them again when we were walking the park, at which time they were more active. In fact, the lioness was at the far end of the enclosure, staring down a blue ball. Here we are, yards away from two of nature's most incredibly beautiful creatures, and what does Kiernan immediately yell?

"Ball!"

He pointed at the big blue ball the lioness was staring at, then he said, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease!" Now don't get me wrong. I'm happy we're teaching him to talk. I'm very happy with how quickly he is picking up and using words. But "please" is not always one of the words I'm happy about teaching him. Because he doesn't just say the word, and he doesn't just say it in the right circumstances. He also has figured out how to maximize the power of the word both by drawing it out for what seems like thirty seconds, and by pairing it with an expression of such pitiful pleading that you can refuse him nothing. It feels like not giving him a fourth cookie is tantamount to denying him water after he's been in the desert for six weeks.

The lioness, thankfully, was impervious to both his tone and his expression. She was not about to share her blue ball with him. To drive this point home, at the exact moment he asked for the blue ball she began playing with it. This was a wonderful moment. She looked like our cat Cali when she is playful. She grabbed the ball in her jaws and shook it around. She threw it and then chased it. Then she rolled over on her back and held it in her paws, wrestling it. It was like somebody at the park was controlling her with a remote control.

All in all it was a terrific day. For the first time Kiernan really seemed to get into the animals. During our other visits to the zoo he has been more interested in people watching than animal watching. Even when he and I went to the L.A. zoo with his godfathers, he was more interested in running around after other kids and entertaining Darren and Daniel than he was in looking at the displays. I do not mean that comment to sound negative, however. I'm enjoying all these stages. It is fun to go to a place like the zoo and see how he reacts differently each time. Each experience is something new, for him and for us. That may be the best part about being his parents, seeing these discoveries as they happen.

That's the main reason we keep taking him to places like the Cold Stone ice cream shop. It's not because we want ice cream, but rather because we want to see how he reacts to the experience each time. It's important to take note of such things. For his development and well-being. Of course.